Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to intervene and issue directions to stop construction work on the Polavaram project until all pending issues were resolved.
“If the project is allowed to be completed before resolution of all the pending issues, it will cause permanent injury to the interest of the State of Odisha and its people,” Mr. Patnaik wrote.
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The Chief Minister had written similar letters to the Prime Minister in September 2015, November 2017, July 2018 and November 2018 in which he had pointed out that the Union Environment Ministry had kept the ‘stop work order’ pertaining to the controversial project in abeyance from time to time without taking the views of the State of Odisha into consideration.
He said the ‘stop work order’ was first kept in abeyance by the Ministry on the request of the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister in February 2013.
It is now learnt that the order has been kept in abeyance for two more years, he added.
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“It is worth mentioning that once the project is completed there shall be impounding of the reservoir and it may not be possible to change the design and operating parameters of the project thereafter,” Mr. Patnaik said.
Adverse impact
Stating that the public hearing with regard to the project has not been carried out to date, Mr. Patnaik reiterated that if the construction work is not stopped forthwith, it will have immense adverse impact on the people living in the tribal district of Malkangiri in Odisha.
“The submergence of tribal villages resulting in mass displacement of primitive tribals, flooding of fertile agricultural lands and submergence of large extent of forest area would be irreversible consequences,” Mr. Patnaik said, adding that all this can be avoided if an opportunity is given for a final resolution of the dispute pending before the Supreme Court.