Former Minister flays river linkage projects taken up by TDP government

Visakhapatnam: Former Minister Vatti Vasantha Kumar said that after his long fight at the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against the previous TDP government's river linkage projects of Godavari, Krishna and Penna, the NGT had issued stay orders on the projects. The Ministry of Environment is preparing a report and will be submitted to the NGT shortly, he said.

Addressing media persons here on Saturday, Vasanth Kumar said that the TDP government had taken up the lift irrigation projects in the name of river linkage projects to earn the easy money and risking the lives of farmers in the Delta area.

"As a farmer of the Delta region, I filed a case in the NGT and the NGT on Friday released orders saying that the state government should not go ahead with the project without getting clearances from the Cental Water Commission (CWC), Ministry of the Environment, Forest and Climate Change," Vasanth Kumar said.

Not following the guidelines and transparency in the lift irrigation projects, the state government had involved in several irregularities in the projects, Vasanth Kumar alleged.