Polavaram Politics

Since I have made a commitment on the floor of the House and I have stressed the need to implement the Polavaram project with the full cooperation of Orissa and Chhattisgarh, I would request for your cooperation in the matter to facilitate conduct of public hearings in Orissa and Chhattisgarh soon Jairam Ramesh, environment minister

SEEKING to mediate in the inter-state dispute over the Polavaram hydel and irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh, environment minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday asked the governments of Orissa and Chhattisgarh to help Andhra Pradesh in carrying out the mandatory public hearings for construction of embankments in areas under their jurisdiction.
Jairam wrote to the chief ministersof boththestatessayingthat Andhra Pradesh had already re questedthestatepollutioncontrol boards of Orissa and Chhattisgarh to facilitate public hearings fortheprojectbuthadnotreceived any response so far. The letter was sent after Jairam gave an assurance in the Rajya Sabha today that he would get the three states together to resolve the long-standing dispute over the R17,000 crore mega-project that will produce 960-MW electricity and irrigate nearlythreelakhhectaresof land.

"Since I have made a commitmentonthefloorof theHouseandI have stressed the need to implement the Polavaram project with the full cooperation of Orissa and Chhattisgarh, I would request for your cooperation in the matter to facilitate conduct of public hearings in Orissa and Chhattisgarh soon," Jairam said in his letter to RamanSinghandNaveenPatnaik. The public hearings have been necessitated by the design changesmadebyAndhraPradesh in the project because of which a fresh environmental clearance was required. Andhra Pradesh of fered to construct protective embankments on Sabari and Sileru rivers in Chhattisgarh and Orissa after the two states had had protestedagainsttheproject,complaining that it was likely to sub merge a number of their villages.

The project had initially been cleared by the Environment Ministry in 2005. Following the design changes, an amended clearance was granted in 2009 subject to the result of the public hearings to be conducted by Andhra Pradesh government in the two states. The affected areas fall under Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh and Malkangiri district of Orissa, both naxal-infested areas with large tribal populations.

Since the public hearings were not held, the Ministry had last November issued a showcause notice to Andhra Pradesh asking why the clearance must not be withdrawn.

Earlier, Jairam made a statement in Rajya Sabha on the issue after BJP's Venkaiah Naidu raise the matter and suggested that the Central government needed to intervene in resolving the dispute between the three states. He offered to arrange a meeting between the three chief ministers if that was required.
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