Stop construction of Polavaram project immediately, Odisha CM tells Andhra

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday requested his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu to stop all construction work on the Polavaram Project immediately till the issues concerning the state of Odisha are resolved.

Patnaik, writing a letter to Naidu, said that construction of the Polavaram Project is going on at a rapid pace without assessing the design flood and backwater extent in Malkangiri district, which is in violation of the Godavari Water Dispute Tribunal (GWDT) and also not conforming to national norms.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in an office memorandum, had decided to keep the ‘stop work order’ in abeyance for one year ( up to 22.06.2016) based on the request of Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh on the basis of his letter subject to several conditions, the letter said.

One of the conditions mentioned in the memorandum is that the Government of Andhra Pradesh, which had earlier assured not to impound the reservoir of the project till the issues raised by the states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha are resolved, without specific permission from the Union Ministry, the letter added.

However, the construction work of the project is going on without any further permission from the Ministry, as per records available with Government of Odisha. No efforts have also been made to resolve the issues relating to the state of Odisha, it concluded.