AP government faces SC query on Polavaram law violations

VIJAYAWADA: The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Andhra Pradesh government as to why it was not accepting the responsibility for causing environmental degradation by taking up the execution of several projects, including the Polavaram irrigation project, among others.

A bench comprising Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice C.T. Ravi Kumar heard appeals from the AP government challenging National Green Tribunal’s recent order directing the state government to pay `120 crore as environmental compensation for flouting green norms while executing the Polavaram project.

The counsel for the petitioner in the case, Pentapati Pulla Rao, submitted to the court that violation of environmental norms while executing the Polavaram project was still going on. He said that nearly 50,000 people were affected due to the execution of the project.

The court also made critical remarks against the AP government, by saying that the kind of interest the government was having in engaging more lawyers to argue in its favour in the court, was not having a similar interest to protect the environment while executing the irrigation projects.

 The court observed it might even serve notices if there was a need to find out how much fees the AP government was paying to engage lawyers to argue in its favour in the apex court. The court said that they would take up a hearing on the appeals filed against the NGT’s direction to the state government to pay environmental compensation for three projects, namely the  Polavaram, Purushothapatnam and Pulichinthala projects, at one go and adjourned the case for next hearing.