Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday granted respite to the Telangana government by suspending a stay order granted by the National Green Tribunal (South Zone), Chennai, directing the state not to proceed with any activity in the first phase of the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation Scheme until January 17, 2017.
On December 14, 2016, the Tribunal had granted an interim stay in a plea by B. Harshvardhan, a resident of Hyderabad, who challenged the government’s act in going ahead with the first phase of the lift irrigation project without forest or environmental clearances and clearing 279 hectares of forest land.
Aggrieved by the stay, the TS government moved a plea before the HC contending that the order of the Tribunal was arbitrary, unjust, illegal and without jurisdiction.
TS advocate-general K. Ramakrishna Reddy argued before a division bench of acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice A. Shankar Narayana, that the Tribunal had passed the order without giving the state an opportunity to have its say.
