HYDERABAD: The Telangana government requested the Supreme Court to look into issuing orders to parties concerned for a new environmental impact assessment of the Polavaram Project located in AP. The government contended that safety of people, livestock and environment in Telangana needed to be considered.
The environmental clearance to the project was granted by the Central government in 2005, considering 36 lakh cusecs as maximum flood discharge. However, the maximum flood discharge has undergone significant changes, now estimated at 50 lakh cusecs, due to changed dam design parameters, it noted. The State government, represented by Principal Secretary to GAD, K Ramakrishna, recently filed a counter affidavit in a petition filed by TS Congress leader Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, seeking directions to authorities concerned to take action on representations made by him for implementation of provisions of the AP Reorganization Act, 2014 enacted by the Union of India. The matter is expected to come up for hearing next month.
The Telangana government, in its counter affidavit, submitted that it has made every effort to ensure that all the provisions of the AP Reorgnization Act, 2014 are implemented and has left no stone unturned to see that benefits of the Act reach the people at large. The Centre was requested for time-bound implementation of various provisions of the Act and to resolve the issues between the AP and Telangana governments, it added and urged the SC to issue appropriate directions to the Centre for implementation of all provisions, assurances and promises in letter and spirit.
The State government also submitted that several provisions have been made in the Act towards development of AP and Telangana, but even after four years of bifurcation, several provisions are yet to be implemented or partly implemented.