VIJAYAWADA: A joint committee constituted by the southern zone bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT), in the matters of petitions filed against Telangana’s Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS), has submitted its interim report stating that the ongoing construction includes both irrigation and drinking water components.
While the committee requested eight more weeks to submit the final report, it is said that the tribunal asked it to furnish the report at the earliest, and posted the matter for hearing to a later date.On Wednesday, NGT heard the petitions filed by Kadapa farmer D Chandramouleswara Reddy alleging that the project was being taken up sans environmental clearance; and another petition by Kosigi Venkaiah from Mahbubnagar of Telangana alleging that there were environmental violations in the project execution. The AP government has also impleaded in the petitions.
According to the report submitted to the bench, the seven-member committee visited PRLIS reservoirs in Narlapur, Yedula, Vattem, Karivena, Uddandapur on September 15 and 16, and later held a meeting at KRMB office on September 20. “Based on the visit and subsequent deliberations, the committee is of the view that PRLIS, which is under construction, includes lift irrigation scheme along with drinking water component. The committee requires some more details to be obtained from various authorities... In view of this, the committee requires time for making final report as per the terms of reference mentioned by the NGT,” the committee submitted.
It may be recalled that the petitioner and the AP government alleged that the neighbouring State government had taken up the project without obtaining necessary environmental clearance. The AP government also submitted to the tribunal that its TS counterpart was constructing irrigation component by claiming that it was taking up drinking water component alone.
In its counter affidavit, the AP government prayed to restrain TS from constructing the project, which is being taken up “in contravention” to the undertaking given by TS to the tribunal. The State has also informed the tribunal that Telangana, which divided the project into two phases of drinking water and irrigation “to evade legal scrutiny”, conducted public hearing in August only for the drinking water component.
Furthermore, the joint committee, which was also tasked with giving its views on the allegations of illegal mining, said that it found no illegal mining activities as alleged.“Based on the site visit and the information provided by the irrigation department, though the de-silting of the tanks was taking place, it does not fall under the purview of illegal mining,” it said in its interim report. However, the committee said it has to verify documents obtained by the Telangana authorities for utilising the de-silted material.