Andhra to seek revision of SC order on Babli

An all-party meeting here Monday decided that Andhra Pradesh government will seek review/clarification from the Supreme Court on its orders about the Babli project neighbouring Maharashtra is building across the Godavari river.

The meeting decided to take the step to safeguard the state's interests.

Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, who presided over the meeting, agreed to hire the services of a senior Supreme Court advocate for the appeal.

After receipt of a favourable direction from Supreme Court on the review/clarification, the state government will request the central government for a joint meeting with Maharashtra government on this issue, said a statement from the chief minister's office.

The chief minister and opposition leaders were of unanimous view that the supervisory committee for the compliance of judgement should be empowered with executive powers for implementation of its directives.

The meeting has also opined that in case of defiance/violations of directives of the committee, stringent penalty need to be levied as determined by Supreme Court.

Leaders of Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), YSR Congress party, Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and other parties attended the meet.

This was the second all-party meet on the issue. At the earlier meeting on March 28, the government had decided to seek legal opinion on filing a review petition.

The Supreme Court Feb 28 allowed Maharashtra to go ahead with the project, rejecting Andhra Pradesh's plea to demolish the barrage. This verdict put an end to the seven-year-long legal battle between the two states.

The apex court also ordered the constitution of a three-member committee to supervise the construction of Babli. The committee will have one representative from the Central Water Commission (CWC) and one representative each from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The CWC representative will be chairperson of the committee.

The Godavari flows from Nanded into the SRSP in Andhra Pradesh's Nizamabad district. Andhra Pradesh moved the Supreme Court in 2006, contending that if a dam was built upstream very close to this project, it would affect the water flow to the SRSP and six northern Telangana districts of Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda, Khammam and Medak.