Polavaram Politics

Final approval for Polavaram project erroneous: Orissa

J. Venkatesan

Deliberate act to render suit infructuous

NEW DELHI: The Orissa government moved the Supreme Court on Saturday seeking a stay on the final approval granted by the Union Environment and Forests Ministry for the Indira Sagar (Polavaram) Project in Andhra Pradesh, and a direction for status quo.

On Wednesday, the Centre, in response to Orissa's suit, justified the grant of clearance for execution of the project. It said protection against submergence had been provided and allayed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's apprehensions.

Conditions same

In its fresh application, Orissa argued that the conditions stipulated in the approval letter were similar to the one issued in 2009 for grant of in-principle approval. When the 2009 approval was still pending in court, the grant of the final approval on the same conditions would amount to overreaching the Supreme Court's orders and interference in its proceedings.

Assailing the Centre for granting approval without informing Orissa, the application pointed out that the project on an inter-State river was fraught with the serious consequences of submergence of, and an adverse environmental impact on, the territories of Orissa. Mr. Patnaik had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Ministry seeking withdrawal of the clearance granted on July 28. In its reply, the Ministry said clearance was granted after “due care of the issues raised” was taken.

Wrong assumption

Drawing a distinction between the original and revised proposals, the application said Orissa entered into the 1980 agreement with Andhra Pradesh based on the maximum backwater level of 174.22 feet for a maximum discharge of 36 lakh cusecs, as put forth by Andhra Pradesh.

However, as per the Andhra Pradesh government's application to the Environment Ministry, the backwater would go up to 182 feet for a discharge of 36 lakh cusecs. Therefore, the most fundamental assumption of fact on which the agreement had been entered into turned out to be wrong.

Furthermore, Andhra Pradesh should have executed the Inchampalli joint project first, so that the design flood at Polavaram could have been drastically reduced to 36 lakh cusecs or lower.

The Inchampalli project was not executed though the agreement had been made in 1975.

In the absence of the revised reservoir operation schedule, due to the change in the design flood, in consultation with the co-basin States of Chhattisgarh and Orissa, the permission and approval granted by the Union Ministry was erroneous and liable to be quashed. The grant of approval was a deliberate act to render the suit infructuous, the application said.