State ready to counter Chhattisgarhs claims

HYDERABAD: The state government is confident of constructing its prestigious Polavaram irrigation project despite a petition filed by the Chhattisgarh government in the Supreme Court seeking directions to restrain Andhra Pradesh from continuing with construction of the dam on Godavari river.Chhattisgarh is the second state after Odisha to move the apex court against the project.In its petition the Chhattisgarh government termed the clearances given for the Rs 17,000-crore project as illegal and alleged that the project threatened the environment and the tribal people in that state.“The project will threaten valuable ecology and wildlife.It will bring misery to tribal people by submerging more than 300 villages in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha,” the petition said.The Odisha government had expressed similar fears in its petition filed in October last year and raised objection to granting clearance to the national project without consulting it.Though the apex court is yet to admit the petition filed by Chhattisgarh, irrigation officials of Andhra Pradesh are making advance preparations to present their case before the court.They point out that the Centre granted the required permissions only after a detailed examination.“The project proposal was accepted only after the doubts expressed by the Centre were addressed.The Andhra Pradesh government assured to construct embankments with adequate drainage to prevent submergence by the backwaters as well as reservoir submergence and consequent displacement of people in the neighbouring states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha,” said a senior official in the irrigation department.Experts suspect that the arguments of Odisha and Chhattisgarh are an effort to create unnecessary fears among denizens to stall the project and point out that the Central Water Commission has already clarified that the final award of the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal in 1980 had settled all issues of submergence.The Polavaram irrigation project is conceived as a multipurpose scheme providing irrigation to 4.36 lakh hectares, water supply to towns and villages en route, and generating hydel power with an installed capacity of 960 mega watts (MW).