Telangana Jagruti president K. Kavita on Monday approached the AP High Court, seeking a stay on the construction of the Indira Sagar (Polavaram) Project. The state government cancelled a tender notification, issued earlier, in light of allegations about the contract being awarded to M\s SEW-Patel-AMR Joint Venture, and issued a fresh notification on April 12, 2012. The government invited bids for works worth Rs 4,717 crore to construct Earth dam gaps I and III and also the spillway and pilot channel for the project.
Ms Kavita told the court that this had been done without consulting the 276 Gram Panchayats that would be affected by the construction of the project. She said that there would be an upward change in the backwater submergence as well as in the number of families affected by the project in the Schedule V area as the PMF (Probable Maximum Flood) was estimated at 50 lakh cusecs as against the earlier PMF of 36 lakh cusecs. Ms Kavita pointed out that the Central Empowered Committee in 2006 pointed out that the Polavaram project was comparable to the Sardar Sarovar project, and feared that around 400 villages and 3.3 lakh people would be affected.
Referring to the inundation of the Seetarama temple in Bhadrachalam in 1986, when flood waters reached 28 lakh cusecs, she said that the sanctum sanctorum of the temple would be submerged due to the project and urged the court to intervene in the matter and stay the construction.
Employees’ Plea against GO 610
Five employees of various departments of the state government moved the High Court on Monday, challenging an order of the AP Administrative Tribunal upholding the government's decision to repatriate more than 20,000 employees of different cadres from Telangana to their res-pective native zones under GO Ms No 610.
A full Bench of the Tribunal held on April 23, that GO 610 dated December 13, 1985 and GO 674 dated Septemb-er 7, 2007 and the consequential repatriation orders passed by the government are not violative of any of the provisions of the Presidential Order.