Ramesh writes to Orissa, Chhattisgarh on Polavaram

NEW DELHI: Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has reached out to Chief Ministers of Orissa and Chhattisgarh to break the logjam on the Polavaram project. Ramesh has written to Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh seeking their co-operation in holding the mandatory public hearings for constructing embankments in their state to prevent submergence.

The push to get both states on board comes even as Ramesh has questioned the Andhra Pradesh government’s continued work on the Polavaram project, though it is yet to settle the matter of building embankments with either Orissa or Chhattisgarh. Neither state has responded to Ramesh’s request. In the meantime, the Andhra Pradesh government is understood to have asked the Environment Ministry to allow construction work on the project to proceed.

Sources said that the Andhra Pradesh government has said that they would not proceed with the field gates till the matter of building embankments is not resolved with Orissa and Chhattisgarh. The Environment Ministry is yet to respond to this request. Public hearing in Orissa and Chhattisgarh are required to be held before going ahead with construction of the protective embankments in Dantewada in Chhattisgarh and Malkangiri in Orissa.

Changes in the design of the project by Andhra Pradesh were approved by an environment appraisal committee with the rider that there should be no submergence in either Orissa or Chhattisgarh. To avoid submergence, Andhra Pradesh would build protective embankments along the 29 km stretch on the River Sabari in Chhattisgarh and 30 km stretch along Rivers Sileru and Sabari in Orissa. The amended clearance was granted subject to the result of the public hearings to be conducted by Andhra government in the two states. The affected areas fall under Naxal-affected areas with large tribal populations .