Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh: Centre clears air, extends stay on ‘stop work’ order
VIJAYAWADA: Ahead of the visit of Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari to the Polavaram project site on July 11, the Centre on Monday extended stay on ‘stop work’ order of Polavaram project for another year. Confirming this to TNIE, an official of the Water Resources Ministry said the week-long delay was due to the Union Environment Minister’s absence in the country.
After returning from abroad, Union Environment and Forest Minister Harsh Vardhan cleared the file, allowing the State government to go ahead with the works of Polavaram. The works of the national project are going on at a brisk pace as the State government set a target to complete the prestigious project in 2019.
The stay on ‘stop work’ order lapsed on July 2 and the officials of Water Resources Department of AP had been waiting for a week for the continuation of stay order for another year so as to complete the works on time.The ‘stop work’ order was issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forest in 2011 with Odisha and Chhattisgarh governments lodging a complaint stating that mandatory public hearings were not conducted in the project-affected areas in their States. However, the Centre issued stay on the order in 2015 and since then extending the same year after year allowing the smooth progress of works. However, in the wake of strained relations between the Centre and State government after the TDP exiting the BJP-led NDA government, the delay gained some significance this time.
However, clearing the air, Harsh Vardhan signed the file immediately after his return.The relations between the Centre and the State government strained in such a way that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, after being informed by some of his ministers that AP BJP chief Kanna Lakshminarayana might also visit Polavaram along with Gadkari, even elicited the opinion of the Cabinet recently whether he should accompany Gadkari or not as presence of Kanna will give a political colour to the visit.It is learnt that majority of the ministers suggested that it is better to make a visit to Polavaram along with the Union Minister.