The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Government to go ahead with Polavaram

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Tuesday, Jan 01, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Government to go ahead with Polavaram

Special Correspondent

Will continue fight to secure justice to the project: Ponnala

CPI (M) creating stories on Polavaram out of its imagination
Governments always launch projects first, obtain clearances later

HYDERABAD: Major Irrigation Minister P. Lakshmaiah has said that the Government will go ahead with the execution of the Polavaram project in light of the stay granted by the High Court against the order issued by the National Environmental Appellate Authority.

It may be recalled that the Appellate Authority had quashed the environmental clearance issued by the Union Ministry of Environment & Forests.

At a press conference here on Monday, the Minister said the Government, however, was neither desperate when the Appellate Authority scrapped the clearance nor was very happy now at the High Court stay.

“We faced several problems while taking up Polavaram, a project that was confined to official files for decades, but we made sincere efforts to overcome all of them. Now also, the Government will continue its war to secure justice to the project,” he said.

Referring to the remarks made by various political parties on the Government stand on Polavaram, especially the CPI (M), Mr. Lakshmaiah said: They are creating stories out of their imagination.

He justified taking up of Polavaram, and for that matter any irrigation project, without Central clearances and challenged these parties to cite at least one project whose work was started in the past only after securing all the Central clearances.

He wanted to know whether former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu laid foundation stones for Devadula and other projects after getting clearness.

As a general practice, successive Governments always launched projects first and obtained clearances later. Clearances to Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam were obtained years after works were launched, he said.

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