HYDERABAD: A division bench of the High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Centre, asking it to respond to a PIL which questioned limiting its financial liability with regard to the Polavaram irrigation project to the extent of project cost as on April 1, 2014 despite it being declared as a national project.
The bench of acting chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice G Shyam Prasad was dealing with a PIL filed by senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao who pointed out that the Centre had, all of a sudden, changed its stand on the execution of the Polavaram multipurpose project and its commitment to expenditure, and announced a special package to AP state on September 8 last year in gross violation of the provisions of AP Reorganization Act, 2014.
The bench directed the Centre to file a comprehensive counter affidavit, explaining the steps taken for implementation of the promise made in the AP State Reorganization Act on Polavaram, and adjourned the case to December 19 for further hearing.