Odisha CM urges PM Modi to stop Polavaram Project

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to stop the construction of the multipurpose Polavaram Project in Andhra Pradesh immediately.

In a letter to PM Modi on Dated July 1, 2019, Patnaik listed out the dates of several letters he had written to the Centre since 2015 seeking a stop to the abeyances of the “stop work order”.

“If the construction work on Polavaram Project is not stopped herewith, 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,” Patnaik wrote to the Prime Minister.

“The Polavaram project can be reformulated as per the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal (GWDT) award without causing large scale submergence in the state of Odisha, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. If the project is allowed to be completed before the resolution of all the pending issues, it will cause permanent injury to the interest of the state of Odisha and its people,” he added.

The Chief Minister also mentioned that the public hearing in Odisha on the project has not been held till date. He also referred to an earlier letter written by him to the erstwhile Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan in this regard.

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