VIJAYAWADA: The Union Ministry of Forest and Environment (MoEF) on Wednesday kept in abeyance the ‘stop work order’ issued against the construction of Polavaarm irrigation project by two more years.
The extension of a year given to the stay on ‘stop work order’ last July is set to lapse next week.
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu called on Union Minister for Forest and Environment Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday and requested that the Centre extend the stay on ‘stop work’ order.
“The stop work order was issued in 2011 by the then UPA government, and as soon as the NDA came to power in 2014, we put it at abeyance, giving an extension of one year each time. But, this time, considering the importance of the project, we thought that the project needs faster execution and therefore signed an order giving two years extension,” Javadekar said.
The ministry allowed keeping the ‘stop work’ order in abeyance for two years without permission to impound water.
He further said that the Narendra Modi government was committed for the development of Andhra Pradesh and welfare of its people.
The Union minister noted that junking the stop work order, which was issued by the MoEF in February, 2011, due to non-compliance with regard to conducting public hearings in Odisha and Chhattisgarh, was not possible because of legal hurdles.
Javadekar assured that the Centre would ensure faster completion of the national project and bear the entire cost for the same. “The Centre will bear the escalated cost of the project, as promised earlier.
Completion of the project is important for AP as it will irrigate nearly tree lakh hectares of land and generate 960 MW hydel power, besides providing drinking water to Visakhapatnam and 540 villages in East and West Godavari districts,” the Union minister said.
Earlier in the day, the State Water Resources officials also had a meeting with a high-level committee on rehabilitation and resettlement (R and R) issues of the project.