HYDERABAD: In a setback to the Telangana government, the principal bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday held that the expansion of Kaleshwararm Lift Irrigation Project taken up by the State government in October, 2019 is without Environmental Clearance (EC) and therefore it was not tenable.
The bench said it cannot accept the stand of the State that EC was not required for expansion of the project, for the extraction of three tmcft water per day instead of two tmcft per day for Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla lift systems since they do not need any infrastructural changes.
The bench felt that extraction of more water certainly required more storage capacity, and also affects hydrology and riverine ecology of Godavari River and therefore EC was necessary for it. "Such issues may have to be examined by the concerned statutory authorities. Prima facie, it is difficult to accept the plea that enhancement of capacity by one third will not require any infrastructural changes. In any case, this aspect needs to be evaluated by the statutory expert committees before the expansion is undertaken," the bench said.
The bench also recalled Minister of Jal Shakti, who is chairman of the Apex Council, on August 7, writing to the Telangana Chief Minister, requesting that the State may not proceed with the project without submitting DPRs to Godavari River Management Board (GRMB) and also without obtaining the sanction of the Apex Council.
The Central Water Commission (CWC) has also stated that no proposal for project’s expansion had been submitted, the bench pointed out.The bench, headed by its chairman Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, said that the Environmental Clearance (EC) was granted for the project “ex post facto” in 2017.
Form expert committee to assess damage: Bench
The bench directed the Ministry of Environment to constitute a seven-member Expert Committee within one month to assess the extent of damage caused to the environment since 2008 when the project was take up as Pranahita-Chevella by the erstwhile Congress government (in undivided Andhra Pradesh) till i t s designs were changed for what has come to be known as Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIS) in 2017 by the State government after the creation of Telangana State in 2014.
The bench also asked the committee, which is to be constituted preferably with Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) members with relevant sectoral expertise, to look into relief and rehabilitation measures adopted thus far and to be adopted, going forward.
“We are unable to accept the stand of the project proponent that primarily the project is for water supply and management and that irrigation is subsidiary or incidental part of the project so as to hold that no EC was required prior to the execution of the project from 2008 to 2017,” the bench said.
The order was issued on an appeal filed by Hayath Uddin, a farmer in Siddipet, and contested by the State of Telangana. The committee should complete its work within six months from the date of its constitution and the progress should be monitored by the secretary of Ministry of Environment.