Row over Polavaram oustees: SC notice to Centre on rehab

The Supreme Court today sought the response of the Centre and others on a plea alleging violation of rights of Scheduled Tribes (STs) and forest dwellers due to the construction of the Indira Sagar Polavaram Project on river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh.

A bench of Justices M B Lokur and Prafulla C Pant also issued notice to Union ministries of Environment and Forest and Water Resources and the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Chattisgarh on the petition.

The petition, filed by NGO RELA through its advocate Sravan Kumar, has sought a direction to the governments to protect rights of the STs and forest dwellers by granting fair compensation to the oustees.
 

The plea also sought a scheme to ensure resettlement and rehabilitation of original inhabitants who are now displaced.

The petition claimed that the project will submerge about 600 habitations in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Odisha and also submerge about 8000 acres of forest and 500 acres of the wild life sanctuary.

"The project-affected people, environment, forest and wild life under threat and the proposition of law is being blatantly violated...(It will lead to) large-scale destruction of the environment, forest and irreparable loss to about four lakh people, including two-and-a-half lakh tribals and Dalits.

"The project would cause great loss for the present as well as future generations...The most backward tribals live in the project-affected area and their centuries-old culture will vanish because of the ill-planned proposal of the project," it said.

It claimed that the environment clearance of the project was cancelled by the National Environment Appellate Authority in 2007 but the Andhra Pradesh High Court put a stay on it as an interim measure.

The Ministry of Environment and Forest gave a direction to stop the construction work of the project on February 8, 2011, but later on it kept its own order in abeyance and extended it four times, it claimed.

The Centre, with the help of Andhra Pradesh, is conducting construction work at a rapid speed to complete the project by the end of 2018, without following the necessary environment, submergence, rehabilitation and resettlement norms, it said.