SC hearing on Polavaram project deferred to Oct 4

The Supreme Court of India has deferred the hearing on the controversial Polavaram project to October 4. The apex court which was scheduled to hear the Orissa government's petition, seeking quashing of the environmental clearance to the project, had to postpone the hearing due to the absence of any representative of the Government of India.

A two-member bench of the Supreme Court, consisting of Justice Mukundakam Sharma and Justice A R Dave, agreed to hear Orissa's plea on October 4.

The Orissa government had filed a petition in the Supreme Court on September 4, opposing the Centre's decision to give environmental clearance for the project.

The state had first moved the Supreme Court after the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had given its interim approval for the project in 2008.

In its suit, Orissa had sought a declaration that Andhra Pradesh had no right or entitlement to undertake or proceed with the Polavaram project on the Godavari river. It has also stated that embankments were not permanent solutions to effectively contain submergence during floods.

The Orissa government has also accused the Central Water Commission (CWC) of not furnishing any details before approving the Polavaram project.

Moreover, the extent of submergence due to design flood (which had been revised to 50 lakh cusecs from the original 36 lakh cusecs by the CWC itself) and the backwater effect along the Sabari and Sileru limbs (flowing through Orissa territory into the Godavari in Andhra Pradesh) had been finalised by the CWC without estimating the flood contributions from these limbs separately by following any rational procedure or acceptable norm, according to the petition filed by the Orissa government.

As per the estimates of the state government, the project was likely to submerge 2119.38 hectares of land in Naxalite-affected tribal areas of Malkangiri .