“We will take up Polavaram issue at the meeting convened by the Prime Minister,” Patnaik said.
Patnaik said that the State Government has been opposing the proposed Polavaram project that is being constructed by the Andhra Pradesh government on the river Godavari on the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border on the ground that it would submerge a large area of tribal-dominated Malkangiri district for a long time. But the Ministry of Environment and Forest had given environmental clearance to the project in October 2005. The government has also demanded withdrawal of the environmental clearance given as it was given without conducting any public hearing in Odisha.
The state government had also filed two cases in 2007 and 2009 in the Supreme Court seeking a halt to construction works of the project.
Patnaik in July this year had also raised the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the reported floating of a tender by the government of Andhra Pradesh for the construction of the project.
Apart from this during his six-days stay in New Delhi, Patnaik will also raise many issues of the State pending with the Union government.
Source: 360 NS
