State urges for separate tribunal on Polavaram

The state water resources department has appealed to the Supreme Court to transfer the case relating to the contentious Polavaram project to a special tribunal after Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy ruled out the possibility of changing the design of the project.

“We have strongly opposed the project in the apex court. Like the Bansadhara dispute for which the Supreme Court has formed a separate tribunal, we demand a separate tribunal on Polavaram,” said Suresh Mohapatra, principal secretary (water resources), Odisha government. Responding to the Andhra government engineer-in-chief’s intention to discuss with the state government for sorting out this contentious issue, the water resources department has sought the details on which the discussion will be undertaken.

 

“The Polavaram matter is in the apex court and our water resources department has asked for details from the Andhra Pradesh government,” said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Andhra Chief Minister, Reddy has ruled out the possibility of changing the design of the project stating that about Rs 4,000 crore has already been spent on project.

Earlier, Patnaik, had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention to immediately stop the project after the Andhra government had started the tendering process.

It may be noted that the state government had approached the apex in 2010, challenging the Centre’s decision to give final environmental clearance to the project. In its suit, Odisha has sought a declaration that AP had no right or entitlement to undertake or proceed with the construction of a dam at Polavaram on the Godavari River. It had also stated that embankments were not permanent solutions to effectively contain submergence during floods. As per the estimates of the state government, the project is likely to submerge 2,119.38 hectares of land in tribal dominated areas of Malkangiri.