Work on Kaleswaram only after all clear: TS

The TS government on Thursday told the Hyderabad High Court that it would take up the irrigation works under the Kaleswaram lift irrigation scheme only after obtaining the required environmental clearances.

TS advocate-general D. Prakash Reddy, putting forth his arguments before a division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice J. Uma Devi, said that if the environmental clearances were not granted, the project would remain a drinking water project and the water would not be used for irrigation.

The bench, while dealing with the petition of the state government to vacate the stay granted by the National Green Tribunal at Delhi directing the state to stop the work till the clearances were obtained, asked the A-G whether any works has been taken up in the forest area.

The A-G replied that the drinking water supply works were taken up in non-forest areas.

He said that though the tribunal granted stay on October 5, the order copy was not prepared till October 22. Mr Reddy said that the technical member of the tribunal retired on October 8, and they believed that the order was prepared only after this.

To this, the bench said preparing the order in non-presence of technical members was very serious and asked him whether he would continue his argument on this crucial issue.

The A-G said that their main contention was that it was a time-barred petition and the NGT bench at Delhi had no jurisdiction to hear the case in view of the existence of the regional benches of the NGT.

Vedula Venkat Ramana, senior counsel appearing for petitioner before the NGT said that the government cannot question the limitation of time and said that they had moved the NGT at Delhi as there were no members in the Chennai bench.