SC issues notices to Centre Andhra on Polavaram

New Delhi, Oct 9 :

 The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to Andhra Pradesh and Centre following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a professor that the backwaters of Polavaram dam would pose a threat to the girijans living in forests of Chhattisgarh and Orissa. The Supreme Court while admitting the PIL, filed by Prof K Jayaprakasha Rao, directed the Andhra Government and Centre to file its affidavit to the court on the objections raised by Orissa and Chhattisgarh governments in three weeks.

Prof Jayaprakasha Rao said the Andhra Pradesh government has not taken the permission of environment and forest departments before constructing the Polavaram dam on Godavari River in West Godavari district. He said the Central Water Commission (CWC) has approved the Andhra Pradesh project in areas bordering Orissa, even though several cases relating to the dispute were pending in the Supreme Court. He claimed that Andhra Pradesh wanted to build a 30-km long embankment and this project was likely to affect several lakhs of tribal people in Orissa as there was a threat of thousands of villages being submerged.