SC asks Telangana, Andhra Pradesh to frame issues for arguments

HYDERABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Chhattisgarh state governments to frame the issues for arguments on the petition filed by Odisha government challenging the Central government’s decision to give national project status to the multi-purpose Indira Sagar Polavaram project on river Godavari in AP.

A bench comprising Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta passed this order on a petition filed by the Odisha government complaining that the project would submerge about 600 habitations in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Telangana, and also submerge about 8,000 acres of forest land and 500 acres of wildlife sanctuary.

The Odisha government submitted that the project works were taken up in violation of the Bachawat tribunal order. There was a need to cancel the permissions granted for the project to ensure that there was no damage to Odisha state and according national project status to Polavaram would not be right. In fact, the project’s environment clearance was cancelled by the National Environment Appellate Authority in 2007 but the AP High Court had stayed it as an interim measure. Even the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest had given a direction on February 8, 2011 for stopping the project constructions works but later kept its own order in abeyance, it recalled.

The counsel for AP government told the court that the governments of Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Telangana were not stating their problems though three meetings were held. To this, the counsels of those states raised an objection.The bench then directed all the four states to frame the issues by July 30. It made it clear that the court would decide if the states did not come up with issues for arguments and posted the matter to July 30 for hearing.