Polavaram faces new petition

Rajahmundry: Work on the Polavaram project may hit a new hurdle on issue of environmental clearance. Hyderabad-based NGO Readiness for Empowerment through Legitimate Action (RELA) has stated that it will file a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court on the issue of environmental clearance. The National Green Tribunal had declined to intervene on a petition filed by RELA stating that the matter was sub-judice.

A suit challenging the environmental clearance issued by the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change and permissions granted by Central Ground Water Authority and Central Water Commission and other issues like relief and rehabilitation, was filed in Supreme Court in 2007. The case has been pending in the apex court.

The Centre had given environmental clearance for the project on October 10, 2005, even though the mandatory public hearing in the affected areas of Odisha and Chhattis-garh was not held. An NGO called Academy for Mountain Environics challenged this before the National Environmental Appellate Authority (NEAA). It quashed the clearance in 2007 on the grounds that not holding the public hearing in the affected areas denied the affected people an opportunity to express their opinions.

The governments of Odisha and Chhattisgarh have been approaching the Supreme Court to ensure that the quash order issued by NEAA is not revoked. Based on a plea from AP government to allow works to continue, the MoEF issued a ‘Stop Work Order’ under Section 5 of Environment (Protection) Act, 1980 on February 8, 2011, initially for a period of six months twice and later kept the order in abeyance every year. The order at present is kept in abeyance up to July 2, 2018. RELA advocate K. Sravan Kumar said, “As NGT declined to accept our petition as the matter is sub-judice, we are going to file an SLP in the apex court to hear our plea on the issue of environmental clearance after considering the developments since 2007 or allow NGT to hear our plea.”

Noted economist Dr Pentapati Pulla Rao said, “Polavaram project’s environmental clearance does not mean only environment, the apex court should also take into consideration how the affected people are facing trouble for failing to get proper relief, rehabilitation and resettlement before allowing the competent authority to give environmental clearance to the project.”