The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday moved the Supreme Court challenging an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) which set aside the Environmental Clearance (EC) granted to Avulapalli Reservoir.
The challenge was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala by Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi.
The bench agreed to list the matter on May 17, Wednesday.
“This is an extraordinary case milord. We are challenging it,” Rohtagi said.
“This reservoir is for ₹3000 crores and our EC has been cancelled. Monsoon is coming. Appeal filed yesterday,” Rohatgi said.
“We will list it day after tomorrow since it is a public project,” the CJI agreed.
The NGT at Chennai had, on May 11, quashed the EC granted to Avulapalli Reservoir by Andhra Pradesh’s State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). It had also imposed a penalty of ₹100 crores on the State’s Water Resource Department.
A bench of Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and expert member Dr Satyagopal Korlapati had observed that it was disturbing to note that a government department can implement an irrigation project by resorting to falsehood, misrepresentation and cheating the SEIAA in gross violation of environmental norms.
“It is extremely disturbing to note that a Government Department, in gross violation of the environmental laws, can go to the extent to implement an Irrigation Project by resorting to falsehood, misrepresentation and cheating the SEIAA,” the Tribunal had said.
The NGT was disposing of an appeal filed by farmers, represented by advocate Sravan Kumar, questioning the validity of the EC of the project.
The appeal was primarily based on the argument that the EC was obtained solely for the Avulapalli balancing reservoir with a capacity of 2.50 TMCFT, whereas the relevant Government Orders (GOs) proposed the construction of three reservoirs to connect the Galeru Nagari Sujala Sravanthi to the Handri Neeva Sujala Sravanthi.
