VIJAYAWADA: THE principal bench of the national green tribunal (NGT) has directed the Water Resources Department and the commissioner of rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) to expedite the R&R related to Polavaram Irrigation Project and complete it within six months. The tribunal, however, did not entertain one of the recommendations of the committee it formed in February to look into R&R and submergence issues in the application filed by Telangana BJP leader Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, to transfer the case to the Supreme Court as the matter with regard to impact on ups t r e a m states was sub-judice in the court.
The principal bench of the NGT, headed by Justice AK Goel, considered the panel’s report on Friday and approved and ordered eight of the nine recommendations. The committee held two meetings with stakeholders in August on various allegations made by the applicant, including change in the project scope without consent from the authorities, increase in flood discharge from 36 lakh cusecs to 50 lakh cusecs, that displacement of people in Telangana, Odisha and Chhattisgarh was not considered, and that there was an increase in irrigation potential which would increase submergence including Bhadrachalam town.
After examining the issues raised by the petitioner, the committee submitted detailed conclusions to the tribunal. “The committee submits that a similar matter (OS 4/2006) on impact on upstream states and backwater studies and in the matter of concerns of the State of Telangana is sub-judice and pending in Hon’ble Supreme Court. In view of the above, the committee humbly submits to NGT to kindly take a decision on transferring the case to Supreme Court,” the committee recommended. However, the tribunal is learnt to have not considered it as it did not want to go into the interstate matters and only wanted to confine it to the aspects of the environment.
Noting that the socioeconomic survey and the eligibility list of the project-affected families is yet to be prepared in East Godavari district while the R&R was underway in West Godavari, the committee concluded that the matter be expedited and PAFs be rehabilitated as per the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, within six months. With regard to the submergence of Bhadrachalam town, the committee noted that neither PPA nor the AP Water Resources Department examined the issue, and recommended that the authority prepare measures to safeguard it in coordination with both states.
It also recommended that the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) devise safeguard measures within six months on the issues related to stagnation of drainage and stagnation of local streams and the Kinnerasani river which may cause flashsubmergence locally if water is maintained at FRL of Polavaram reservoir.
“The Polavaram Project Authority and Water Resources Department of AP may take complete responsibility for any adverse impacts solely arising out of the project in future days. The authority may pursue with the states of Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Odisha on the anticipated impacts in their respective states, examine the issues and take proper remedial actions and safeguard measures...,” the committee concluded. Though the project is nearing completion, neither the rehabilitation plan nor the construction of protective embankments has been undertaken since Odisha and Chhattisgarh are yet to give their consent for either option, the committee explained.