At a time when Orissa and Andhra Pradesh government have locked horns over the controversial Polavaram project, the Supreme Court of India has directed both the state governments to jointly form an expert technical committee.
The committee members would visit the project site, interact with the affected people and ascertain whether the project is being executed as per the guidelines of the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal. The apex court has directed that the committee needs to submit a report soon in this connection.
The court will conduct the next hearing on a case pertaining to the Polavaram project within three weeks.
"The Supreme Court heard the Polavaram case today and it has asked the state governments of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh to jointly form an expert technical committee and submit a report to the apex court”, Suresh Mohapatra, secretary (water resources) said.
It may be noted that the Orissa government had approached the Supreme Court of India on September 4 last year, challenging the Centre's decision to give final environmental clearance for the project.
On October 4 last year, the apex court had asked the Government of India to file its response within a month to the petition filed by the Orissa government in connection with the controversial project.
In its suit, Orissa had sought a declaration that Andhra Pradesh had no right or entitlement to undertake or proceed with the Polavaram project on the Godavari river. It has also stated that embankments were not permanent solutions to effectively contain submergence during floods.
Moreover, the extent of submergence due to design flood (which had been revised to 50 lakh cusecs from the original 36 lakh cusecs by the CWC itself) and the backwater effect along the Sabari and Sileru limbs (flowing through Orissa territory into the Godavari in Andhra Pradesh) had been finalised by the CWC without estimating the flood contributions from these limbs separately by following any rational procedure or acceptable norm, according to the petition filed by the Orissa government.
As per the estimates of the state government, the project was likely to submerge 2119.38 hectares of land in Naxalite-affected tribal areas of Malkangiri .
