Stop construction work on Polavaram project: Naveen to Naidu

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday requested his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu to stop the ongoing work on contentious Polavaram project.

In the letter, the Chief Minister said construction work of the project is going on at a rapid pace without correctly assessing the design flood and backwater extent in Malkangiri district, which is in violation of the Godavari Water Dispute Tribunal Award and also not conforming to national standards/norms.

“The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in an office memorandum, had decided to keep the ‘stop work order’ in abeyance for one year based on the request of the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh on the basis of his letter subject to several conditions,” he said.

One of the conditions mentioned in the memorandum is that the Government of Andhra Pradesh, which had earlier assured not to impound the the reservoir of the project till issue raised by Chhattisgarh and Odisha are resolved. But, the construction work is going on without any further permission from the Ministry and no efforts have also been made to resolve the issues concerning Odisha, the letter added.