State to present strong case against expansion works of Polavaram Project by A.P.

Hyderabad

The State government is gearing up to make a strong pitch for stopping the preparation of a detailed project report pertaining to Nallamalasagar project proposed by the Andhra Pradesh government.

The State government is concerned about the preparation of the DPR by the neighbouring State, as it is in gross violation of the Central Water Commission. The government is accordingly resolved to put up a strong case against the grant of environmental clearance and extension of financial assistance to the project by the Centre.

With the writ petition filed against the project coming up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Monday, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Minister for Irrigation N. Uttam Kumar Reddy held discussions with the State’s counsel and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Sunday (January 04) in Mumbai. They alerted the Irrigation department officials to keep all the documents in support of the State’s arguments ready

Mr. Singhvi was requested to effectively argue the case on behalf of the State government to ensure that expansion works pertaining to linking Polavaram-Banakacharla/Nallamalasagar, being taken up without permission, were stopped. The government raised several pertinent issues that were against the interests of Telangana in its petition urging the Supreme Court to direct the Polavaram Project Authority to stop works.

It wanted the status quo to be maintained on the design of the Polavaram Project agreed in the past, asserting that any deviation from this by the A.P. government would be illegal. The State government took objection to the Centre examining the previous feasibility reports of the proposed project without taking the objections raised by Telangana into consideration.

The Telangana government appealed to the Apex Court to give clear instructions to the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, Central Water Commission and the Godavari River Water Management Board in this direction.