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In his letter to the PM, Naveen had stated, “The formulation of the Polavaram project is in complete violation of the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal (GWDT) award”. Rawat in his reply to Naveen has written, “The Polavaram project is completely in congruence with GWDT 1980 award. All the stipulations of GWDT 1980 have been taken care of by the Central Water Commission during techno-economic appraisal of Polavaram project. Hence, it should not be construed as violation of tribunal award”.
Naveen in his letter to the PM had stated that Government of Odisha has filed a suit in Supreme Court in October 2007 “against construction of project and to declare the environmental clearance and R&R clearance as null and void. Government of Odisha has also filed a series of interlocutory applications in Supreme Court thereafter”. On this, Rawat’s letter says, “No verdict has been delivered by Hon’ble Supreme Court against the implementation of Polavaram project in response to the interlocutory applications filed by Government of Odisha. No verdict has been or stay order has been delivered by Hon’ble Supreme Court”.
Naveen in his letter had noted, “The project will result in large scale submergence in the Malkangiri district, a tribal district which is affected by Left-wing extremism. The proposal of the Government of Andhra Pradesh to have embankments is not a sound proposition and cannot be treated as a measure to contain the submergence within the river banks during floods”. In reply to this point, Rawat wrote, “In order to protect the land from submergence falling under the territory of Odisha, protective embankments with adequate drainage sluices have been proposed, the cost of which is to be met out of Polavaram project by Govt of AP. It is stated that construction of flood embankments along the rivers and adjoining important places is an old age practice and considered to be standard solution against flooding/submergence, which is not only adopted in india but also throughout the world for centuries”.
Naveen had written, “No public hearing has so far been conducted in Malkangiri. The construction of the project would adversely affect the forest land and habitations of tribal people due to the submergence likely to be caused by the project”. On this point Rawat has said, “Since the Govt of Andhra Pradesh has so far not conducted the requisite public hearings in Odisha and Chhattisgarh for which the Ministry of Environment and Forest has issued stop work order for the project in question and this is still in vogue”.
