RAISING POLAVARAM DAM TO MWL 177ft. DROWNS 50 VILLAGES IN C'GARH

C'garh will move SC to stop Polavaram project

RABINDRA NATH CHOUDHURY

RAIPUR Article Date 10-3-2011, The Asian Age ePaper   POLAVARAM OPPOSED BY CHATTISGARH ,   2011 http://epaper.asianage.com/ASIAN/AAGE/2011/03/10/ArticleHtmls/10_03_2011_005_009.shtml?Mode=1 Chhattisgarh March 9: Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh on Wednesday announced that the state government would soon move Supreme Court seeking its intervention to stop Andhra Pradesh from going ahead with the multi-purpose Polavaram project. “We have decided to move the apex court against the project as Andhra Pradesh is going ahead with its construction without consulting us on several issues, including raising the dam height,” Mr Singh told the state Assembly here. The chief minister said an estimated 17,000 hectares of reserve forest in south Bastar region would be submerged and more than 15,000 tribals displaced by the Indira Sagar Dam Project. Mr Singh said he had already written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh urging them to call a meeting of the chief ministers of the concerned states — Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa — to resolve the issue. The chief minister said he had also discussed the issue with his Orissa counterpart, Mr Naveen Patnaik, who is also opposed to the project. He said the controversial project would only benefit Andhra Pradesh, while Chhattisgarh and Orissa would be worst affected. Even the Union environment minister had admitted that public hearing for the proposed project was not conducted by Andhra government before the project obtained environment clearance, he added. Making a statement in the House, state forest minister Vikram Usendi said the height of the proposed dam was increased from 150 ft to 177.04 feet by Andhra Pradesh without taking Chhattisgarh government into confidence. Earlier, Congress Legislature Party leader Ravindra Choubey and former chief minister Ajit Jogi expressed serious concern over the adverse impact of the project on Chhattisgarh. They said nearly 50 tribal villages would be submerged by the project and extended their party's support for any movement by the state government against the project.