Amaravati: The Centre on Wednesday issued a notice to the Andhra Pradesh government regarding environmental violations in the Polavaram irrigation project.
This was at a time when Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy was paying visits to the Prime Minister and other Union ministers as part of his scheduled trip to the national capital.
The Centre wanted the state government to reply on why environmental clearances to the Purushottapatnam lift irrigation scheme shouldn’t be cancelled. The previous Chandrababu Naidu government had termed the scheme as part of the Polavaram national irrigation project.
The notice was served on the basis of a report submitted by a Chennai-based panel on environmental violations in the Polavaram Project in 2005 when Reddy’s father, late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, was at the helm.
Reddy has been camping in Delhi for the last two days during which he met PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other Union ministers regarding aid to Andhra Pradesh as per provisions of the AP Re-Organisation ACT, 2014.
The Reddy government has decided to initiate a re-tendering process for the Polavaram project and recently served a pre-closure notice to a contract agency.
Union Minister for Jalshakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat objected to the move and raised his concern over the issue in the Lok Sabha recently. Shekawat said the decision would lead to a delay in completion of the project and increase its cost drastically.
After the Union minister expressed his concerns, the Centre served the notice to the government over the project.
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