HYDERABAD:The principal bench of the National Green Tribunal, New Delhi, on Monday issued notices to the ministry of environment and forests, ministry of water resources, ministry of tribal affairs, Polavaram Project Authority, governments of AP, TS, Odisha and Chattisgarh and the East Godavari district collector to respond to a petition that alleges construction of Purushothapatnam lift irrigation project was taken up without environmental and hydrology clearances, rehabilitation, resettlement and inter-state agreements.
The bench of acting chairperson Justice Jawad Rahim, Justice SP Wangdi (judicial member) and Nagin Nanda (expert member) was dealing with a petition filed by Madicharla Satyanarayana and M Ramachandram from East Godavari district complaining that the Purushothapatnam project was taken up without conducting any statutory environmental impact assessment and social impact assessment as per the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
Petitioners’ counsel K Sravan Kumar told the tribunal that the lands of the affected farmers, including the petitioners, were taken away by force by deploying police personnel. No public hearing was conducted and environmental impact studies were done by the project proponent as per the law, he noted.After hearing the case, the bench issued notices to the respondents to reply on the issue, and posted the matter to third week of July.