NGT Directs AP To Stall "Illegal" Water Projects

In a major setback to the Andhra Pradesh Government, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) today directed the state administration to stall all its "illegal" irrigation projects.

The body issued the orders after G Srinivas filed a contempt petition in this regard.

(Before this, the Telangana government, too, had filed complaints against the projects which stated that AP was violating the norms mediating the construction of irrigation projects against the orders of the NGT by proceeding with projects without submitting the relevant Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) and without procuring the requisite environmental clearances for the same.)

Expressing serious concern at the violation of its previous stay orders, the NGT warned the Jagan regime that it would send Chief Secretary Adityanath Das to jail if the works were not stalled immediately.

"How is the AP government violating previous orders and continuing the irrigation project works without obtaining environmental clearance? If the works are not stalled, orders to send the CS to jail will be issued," the NGT warned.

After issuing today's orders, the NGT court said that the matter would be heard again on July 12.

It is pertinent to mention here that the body had already instructed the Jagan regime to stop the works related to the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Project and the Pothireddypadu project. The KCR government has continually argued that Telangana will lose its rightful share of waters if these two projects are completed.

Meanwhile, the AP government has written a letter to the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) against the power generation project of the TRS government at the Srisailam dam, and urged it to stop the same immediately.

AP Engineer-in-Chief Narayana Reddy wrote the letter to the KRMB secretary. In his letter, he alleged that the Telangana GENCO was drawing power from a hydro-electric station of the Srisailam dam and that the GENCO was drawing water from the dam as well, despite knowing that the dam had only 808.40 feet of water.

Reddy claimed that the GENCO had used 3 tmc of water out of the 8.89 tmc of water received by the project. He told the board that as a result of this, it would take a lot of time to replenish the dam again.