Polavaram Project: Supreme Court Suggests Centre To Call For Meeting Of Stakeholders

The bench also took note of the concerns raised by the governments of Odisha, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh about the project's potential to cause flooding in some places.

Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to convene a meeting of all stakeholders to go over and address the problems relating to the Polavaram Project in Andhra Pradesh.

A bench headed by Justice SK Kaul said that the Ministry of Environment and the Jal Shakti Ministry must take the lead in this effort. A meeting needs to be held at a high level. Chief Ministers can get together to resolve the problems. The Bench issued the directive, stating that meetings must be convened within a month and reports must be submitted to the Supreme Court.

The next hearing was adjourned to December 7.

The bench also took note of the concerns raised by the governments of Odisha, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh about the project's potential to cause flooding in some places.

The bench, which included Justice AS Oka and Vikram Nath, noted the claim that the project had been expanded beyond what had originally been planned. There are issues concerning environmental clearances as well on account of its expansion.

It stated that in order to resolve the concerns, the conference needed to be held at a suitable high level. The bench commented during the hearing that the issues mentioned in the case needed to be investigated and resolved. The bench declared, "These are all issues which should be investigated and worked out in an acceptable scenario."

Senior lawyer Venkataramani on behalf of the AP government has heard the argument that Rs 20,000 crores have already been spent on the Polavaram project and another Rs 30,000 crores will have to be spent. He said that this is not a project being undertaken by the AP government but a project being built with central funds. 

Since this is a significant project, the Centre has been asked to arrange a meeting with the representatives of other states to resolve the controversial issues. He requested that the issue of environmental clearances should also be resolved so that the project does not face any problems. 

(With inputs from ABP Desam — It is a Telugu platform of ABP News. For more news, commentary and latest happenings from two Telugu states, follow https://telugu.abplive.com//amp)