SC pulls up AP govt

The Supreme Court of India has pulled up the Andhra Pradesh government for its failure to submit names of experts in connection with the Polavaram project within the time stipulated by the court.

Though the apex court in its hearing on March 3 had directed the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa to submit names of experts within four weeks, Andhra Pradesh had failed to furnish names of experts. The Supreme Court today directed the Andhra Pradesh government to file names of the experts by Monday, the next day of hearing on the project.

Meanwhile, Orissa has filed the names of experts with the apex court. The members of the expert committee constituted by the Orissa government are Anil D Mohile, former chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC), D K Goswami, professor of IIT-Delhi and M Perumal, professor of IIT-Roorkee.

In accordance with the direction of the Supreme Court, Orissa had constituted a three-member expert committee to examine various issues pertaining to the controversial Polavaram project.

The Orissa government had approached the Supreme Court of India on September 4 last year, challenging the Centre's decision to give final environmental clearance for the project.

On October 4 last year, the apex court had asked the Government of India to file its response within a month to the petition filed by the Orissa government in connection with the controversial Polavaram project.

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.

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 is likely to submerge 2119.38 hectares of land in Naxalite-affected tribal areas of Malkangiri.