VIJAYAWADA: The State Water Resources Department is ready with its arguments for the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) meeting to be held on Wednesday to discuss the environmental clearance (EC) to the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS).
The scheduled meeting is being held two days after Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy shot off a letter to Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar requesting early accordance of EC to the project, which, Jagan said, has been proposed only as a supplemental mechanism to the existing projects without the involvement of any land acquisition, submergence of forest area or wildlife sanctuary, and is located more than 10 km away from the eco-sensitive zone.
According to information, the EAC meeting will be held between 10:30 and 11:30 am. Water Resources officials, including Secretary J Syamala Rao, Engineer-in-Chief C Narayana Reddy and Chief Engineer (Projects, Kurnool) R Muralinatha Reddy are expected to participate in it. The officials will make a presentation at the EAC meeting, strongly pitching for amendments to the already existing environmental clearances (ECs) of Telugu Ganga, Srisailam Right Bank Canal and Galeru Nagari Sujala Sravanthi.
While the 15-member EAC meeting, for which the State is ready with strong arguments, is scheduled on Wednesday via a virtual link, the outcome will be known only when the minutes of the meeting are revealed, usually, a week later. Though it is learnt that the EAC is convinced with the State argument, it is taking into account the ongoing case in the NGT. While a contempt petition has been filed by original petitioner Gavinolla Srinivas, the TS government has also filed a contempt petition.
As per the process, after the EAC clears the proposal, it will be forwarded to another three-member committee headed by the secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. This entire process usually takes 30 to 60 days. It may be recalled that the 13th EAC meeting was held on June 16 and 17 on the same agenda, but had deferred the proposal seeking further assessment “in view of the changed profile of the existing scheme and concerns raised by the NGT.”
As per the minutes of the meeting, the EAC had sought clear drawings of the layout showing all components of the proposed project and the details of ecologically sensitive areas within 10 km of the project along with clarification if water drawl through pumping and gravity continues.