52 Andhra villages give Polavaram a red signal

In a new twist to controversy over forest clearance to Polavaram dam in Andhra Pradesh, 52 village bodies of the state have sought cancellation of environment clearance to the biggest dam in south India as their consent was not sought under the Forest Rights Act.

Updated on: Nov 21, 2010, 24:53:35 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

In a new twist to controversy over forest clearance to Polavaram dam in Andhra Pradesh, 52 village bodies of the state have sought cancellation of environment clearance to the biggest dam in south India as their consent was not sought under the Forest Rights Act.

The environment ministry had cancelled forest clearance for bauxite mining for Vedanta Resources aluminum refinery in Orissa on the ground that consent of villagers under FRA was not taken. Similarly, the ministry’s forest advisory committee has found that FRA provisions in case of Posco’s steel plant in Orissa were not met.

“Same is the case with Indira Sagar Polavaram Multipurpose dam,” the villagers said in a letter to Forest Advisory Committee. A resolution to this effect was passed by 52 gram sabhas in Khamman, East Godavari and West Godavari, which will be submerged when the dam is constructed.

The villagers have strongly contested the claim of Andhra Pradesh government that the Forest Rights Act was not applicable and no forest rights needed to be settled in the areas of submergence.

The villages have sought environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s intervention and said that same law cannot be applied in differently in two states. “We want cancellation of the final forest clearance accorded to the Polavaram Dam, in view of the non-compliance of Andhra Pradesh government with respect to the implementation of FRA 2006 in the Polavaram submergence affected villages,” the letter read. “Our rights have not been protected”.

The environment ministry had earlier issued a notice to Andhra Pradesh government on why action should not be initiated against it for failing to hold public consultations in Orissa and Chhattisgarh, the two states to be affected by dam construction.

The state government had refused to conduct public consultation stating it was duty of the respective state governments and not theirs.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.