SC refuses to stay dam construction

In a setback to the Orissa government, the Supreme Court today refused to grant stay on the construction of Polavaram dam in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

"In the current circumstances, it would be difficult for us to stay the construction of Polavaram dam at this stage", a two-member bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justice Mukundakam Sharma and Justice A R Dave said, refusing to entertain Orissa's plea.

The apex court has directed former member of the Central Water Commission (CWC) M Gopalakrishnan to inspect the Polavaram project along with CWC and submit separate reports to the apex court by 19 July, the next date of hearing.

The bench's remark came in response to a plea by senior counsel Raju Ramachandran, appearing for Orissa, who insisted that the work should be stopped pending submission of the expert panel's report.

It may be noted that the Orissa government had constituted a three-member expert committee to examine various issues pertaining to the controversial Polavaram project.

The expert committee was constituted by the state government in accordance with the Supreme Court of India and the state had sent the names of these experts to the apex court.

The members of the expert committee 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.

The Andhra Pradesh government had also filed the names of three experts- M Gopalakrishnan, B M Ahuja and J Hassan with the apex court.

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

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