The Southern Zone Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has given time to Andhra Pradesh government till February 2 to file its counter affidavit on Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme, following an affidavit filed by petitioner Gavinolla Srinivas stating that execution of work on the project is going on against the directions given by the tribunal.
In the virtual hearing held through video conference on January 18 by Justice K. Ramakrishnan, judicial member, and Saibal Dasgupta, expert member, the counsel appearing for the AP government stated that he could not verify and approve the counter affidavit due to his pre-occupation and sought some more time for submitting it.
The counsel for AP also submitted that the AP government was not doing any work for the purpose of execution of the project, but only the soil investigation test was being conducted for which certain operations were being done for the purpose of preparing a proper detailed project report (DPR).
Countering the version of the counsel for AP government, the counsel for the petitioner, who originally moved the NGT requesting it to restrain AP from taking up the Rayalaseema Lift Scheme and enhancement of water drawal capacity of an existing system to divert about 3 tmc ft of water from Srisailam reservoir every day, said that work like blasting was being done without obtaining the necessary permission.
The counsel for the petitioner also stated that nature of such work would amount to execution of RLIS against the directions of the tribunal. However, the tribunal observed that it would not be proper on its part to grant any direction as being claimed by the counsel for the applicant without considering the counter statement and felt that more time could be granted for the purpose and posted the next hearing to February 2.
