NGT hears Telangana government arguments on RLIS, posts case to September 3

Hyderabad: The Chennai Bench of the National Green Tribunal which heard the arguments of the Telangana State government on Friday against the proposed Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS) and posted the case to September 3.

The arguments followed a petition filed by one G Srinivas who accused the AP government of unilaterally scaling up the Krishna water drawal plan through the proposed LI Scheme. He contended that the experts committee report that no environmental clearances were required for the project was false.

Advocate General for Telangana, Ramachandra Rao, presenting the government's contention argued on Friday that the expert committee's opinion was a reflection of the AP government stand and did not reflect the ground realities. The Committee had gone solely by the AP version without verifying the actual position.

The proposed project was a new one and hence it required the clearances from the Environment Ministry before being taken up, he said. Moreover, he argued, the AP government had plans to double the drawal of waters by increasing the capacity of the project from 40,000 cusecs to 80,000 cusecs in addition which clearly proved that AP Government had planned a new project at Pothireddypadu. Hence, he pleaded that the expert committee's report be trashed and sought directions from the Tribunal to AP government to prevent it from going ahead with the project.

The Advocate General submitted to the Tribunal that his government would organise a tour of the proposed project site for the members of the expert committee for an aerial survey if they so wished to realise the gravity of the situation. The AP government had misled the committee and also was trying to mislead the Tribunal in claiming that it was an existing project, Ramachandra Rao submitted. Rao further stated that the Telangana State would face an irrevocable injustice if the AP government was allowed to go ahead with the project and completed it.