The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has rejected the plea of Telangana that the petition filed by one D. Chandramouleswara Reddy and others of Kadapa district against carrying out of work on Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) is not maintainable and issued interim orders staying work till the environmental clearance is obtained.
In the order pronounced on Friday by Justice K. Ramakrishnan, Judicial Member, and Dr. K. Satyagopal, Expert Member, the NGT Southern Zone Bench considered the preliminary objections raised by the petitioners and held that the application is maintainable and not barred by limitation. The Bench also held that the applicants are entitled for interim injunction as prayed for.
Mr. Chandramouleswara Reddy and others complained in their petition that Telangana is proceeding with PRLIS without conducting environmental impact assessment (EIA), without obtaining prior environmental clearance (EC) and also without getting approval from the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) and that the project affects the interests of Andhra Pradesh people.
Further, they stated that Telangana cannot indiscriminately construct PRLIS without any allocation and without any statutory approvals and the act would cause irreparable loss to the petitioners and other inhabitants of AP. They submitted to the Tribunal that Telangana had unilaterally proceeded with PRLIS with an estimated cost of ₹32,500 crore allegedly based on 90 tmc ft of flood flows to be drawn from Srisailam for 60 days during the flood season.
After pursuing the documents furnished by the applicants, arguments made on behalf of the applicants, Telangana, AP and other respondents and the report of the joint inspection committee, the NGT Bench has restrained Telangana from proceeding with PRLIS work without obtaining EC for which they have already applied for and pending for consideration by MoEF.
The Bench also posted the matter to November 24 for considering objections, if any, to be filed by the respondents to the Joint Committee report submitted to the Tribunal on October 1.
