Green Tribunal cries halt to Kaleshwaram works

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal has cried halt to the Kaleshwaram Project works, citing the requirement of forest and environmental clearances. Once the Government secures the clearances, it could approach the Tribunal for relief.

A bench of the Tribunal, headed by Justice Javed Rahim, delivered the interim orders here on Thursday. It refused to adjourn the hearing to January, despite plea by senior counsel for the Telangana State Government Mukul Rohatgi.

Rohatgi argued that there should not be any stay on the works as the project had secured clearances for Stage-I and that it was not a new project. He argued that the erstwhile Ambedkar Pranahita Project itself had been renamed as Kaleswaram Project. So, there was no new project undertaken by the Government.

Public hearing was conducted in 2011 itself and the works relating to the same project were ongoing. The senior counsel stated that in view of the drinking water needs of the State, the Government had only undertaken the drinking water project works.

The present State Government had never considered the Kaleswaram Project as an irrigation project and would never take up the works on this component without any permissions and clearances. However, the counsel for petitioner, Sanjay Upadhyay, argued that the project was a new one; had no clearances at all from the Central agencies, but had the potential to greatly harm the ecology.

The main gravity canal was in the midst of a reserve forest and, in the absence of any clearances, it would only destroy the ecosystem. Even the clearances that had been given for the Stage-I of the project were not conducive to the construction of the project, he argued.