NGT seeks info on MoEF's stop-work order on Polavaram project

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday sought the response of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on the status of implementation of the Polavaram project stop-work order issued earlier by the ministry.

The MoEF had issued the order to stop-work on the project in 2011, for failures in conducting public hearings in Chhattisgarh and Odisha, which was a condition precedent to obtaining an environmental clearance for the development. The environment ministry, though, had decided to keep the order in abeyance, the time-period of which expired in June this year.

The Bench, headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar, has asked the advocate appearing on behalf of the MoEF on Tuesday to submit a status report on the project and provide the office memorandum for the stop-work order, by the next date of hearing on September 5. In the event of default, the NGT has directed the personal presence of the environment ministry official concerned on the date fixed.

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The tribunal has passed the present order in relation to a petition alleging the Andhra Pradesh government’s construction of the Polavaram project in severe violation of environmental laws.
 

The NGT had earlier directed a joint inspection of the Polavaram development by the government of Andhra Pradesh, the state’s pollution control board and the Polavaram Project Authority, or PPA (constituted by the central government) on objections raised against dumping of mud in the West Godavari district.

The Polavaram development had been declared a national project under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. Under the provisions of the Act, the central government is to take control of the development and obtain all necessary clearances. 

However, the state government is still to hand over the project to the PPA and is continuing to undertake construction of the development on its own.