Hyderabad: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the governments of AP and Telangana seeking their stands on a plea moved by a farmer from Guntur district in AP against the Palamuru irrigation scheme taken up by the Telangana state government.
Mr Alla Venkata Gopala Krishna Rao moved the plea alleging that the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy lift irrigation scheme was in violation of the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 and would cause huge losses to farmers in AP.
A two-member Bench comprising Justices Joseph Kurien and Rohinton Fali Nariman, noticed that both governments had not filed counter affidavits though notices had been issued earlier.
Project not a new one, Telangana tells Supreme Court
Senior counsel V. Giri, appearing for the petitioner Alla Venkata Gopala Krishna Rao, submitted that without getting clearances from the authorities concerned, the TS government had laid the foundation stone for the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy scheme.
He urged the Bench to grant a stay on the project. Opposing the stay, Mr Vaidyanathan, counsel appearing for TS, submitted that the project was not a new one it and had been designed and sanctioned in the combined state of AP.
A.K. Ganguly, counsel for the AP government, said that TS had to respect the AP Reorganisation Act and after obtaining the necessary approvals, it could go ahead with the project.
He urged the court to grant some time to file the counter affidavit. While considering the request, the Bench granted four weeks to both states to file counter affidavits and asked the petitioner to file his counter affidavit after receiving the counter affidavits from both states. The bench posted the case to July 20 and said that it would pronounce its decision on that day.
