Odisha to seek SC injunction on irrigation project

Bhubaneswar, May 7 (IANS) Odisha Wednesday said it will seek an injunction from the Supreme Court on the central government's decision to set up an autonomous authority for the Polavaram irrigation project in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

The state's water resources secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said the union cabinet earlier this week gave its nod to a proposal to set up Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) to speed up the environment and investment clearances for the project.

The cabinet took the decision despite the fact the matter is pending with the Supreme Court, he told IANS. "We will bring the latest development to the notice of the Supreme Court and seek an injunction," he added.

The Odisha government moved the Supreme Court after the union ministry of environment and forests first granted interim approval to the project to be built on Godavari river in 2008.

Odisha has been opposing the project, claiming a large number of villages in its Malkangiri district would be affected.

The central environment ministry gave Andhra Pradesh the final clearance for diversion of 3,731.07 hectares of forest land four years ago for the project, despite protests.

The central authority said they cleared it on the condition that no submergence of forest land would take place in both the states.