BHUBANESWAR: The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on Tuesday kept in abeyance the stop work order on Polavaram multipurpose project by one more year evoking strong protest from the ruling Biju Janata Dal in Odisha.In an office memorandum, the Ministry maintained that in pursuance to the request by the Andhra Pradesh Government as well as Ministry of Water Resources, the stop work order which had been issued on February 8, 2011 is further kept in abeyance for a period of one more year from July 3, 2018 to July 2, 2019. Earlier, the stop work order had been kept in abeyance from July 3, 2015 to July 2, 2016, July 3, 2016 to July 2, 2017 and July 3, 2017 to July 2, 2018.
The order from the Ministry has come despite repeated demands from the Odisha Government to stop the work of the Polavaram project which has been declared as a national project by the Centre. The Odisha Government on June 1 had demanded that the construction work of the Polavaram project should be stopped immediately till the issues pertaining to the State are resolved.
In a letter to Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Harsh Vardhan, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said construction of the project is in violation of Godavari Water Dispute Tribunal (GWDT) Award and is being continued without correctly assessing the backwater extent in the Saberi and Sileru limbs in the territory of Odisha.
Odisha challenged the construction of Polavaram project in 2007 before the Supreme Court and the matter is subjudice, the Chief Minister had said and added that the environmental clearance (EC) granted in 2005 is invalid since no public hearing was conducted in Malkangiri district which would be severely affected by the project in the present formulation.
The National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA) on December 19, 2007 set aside the EC granted by MoEF in favour of Polavaram project and directed for conducting public hearing in the affected areas of Odisha and Chhattisgarh. The orders of the NEAA were suspended by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh against which the Odisha Government filed counter in the same court. The Odisha government along with Chhattisgarh Government had filed a transfer petition before the Supreme Court with a request to transfer the writ petition pending before the Andhra Pradesh High Court to the Supreme Court which the apex court has accepted.
The Chief Minister had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 28, 2017 urging him not to allow the construction of the Polavaram project till all the pending issues are settled by Supreme Court.Meanwhile, government chief whip in the Assembly Amar Prasad Satpathy said the interest of Odisha has not been taken into consideration while keeping in abeyance the stop work order. He said the State Government’s opposition will continue.