HYDERABAD: TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter K Kavitha filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the High Court Monday, to try and scupper the tenders issued for the Polavaram project.Representing the NGO Telangana Jagruthi, she wants the tender notification issued by the state government to be set aside. She cited as respondents the Union ministries of environment and water resources and the state Irrigation Department.The government invited bids for three major components of the project on April 16. These include construction of the earthen dam in gaps I & III, spill, approach and pilot channel; construction of a spillway and its ancillary works; and excavation of the foundation for a 960 MW powerhouse. The contract value is Rs 4717 crore and the last date for bids June 15.Kavitha's petition contends that no less than 276 gram panchayats affected by the project were never consulted; yet, resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) clearance was issued by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs on the basis of concocted data furnished by the government. It says there would be an upward change in the backwater submergence area and the number of project-affected families as the PMF (probable maximum flood) has been revised to 50 lakh cusecs from the earlier 36 lakh cusecs. Therefore the R&R clearance secured in 2007 would have to be quashed, the petition states.Further, it says that no field surveys were carried out to ascertain the exact number of villages that would be submerged by the backwaters. For instance, the Bhadrachalam temple was inundated by a flood of a mere 28 lakh cusecs in 1986. So a flood of 36 lakh cusecs would completely overcome the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. The Central Empowered Committee, in an observation recorded in 2006, had said that no less than 400 villages and 3.3 lakh people would be affected by the Polavaram project, comparable in this respect to Gujarat's Sardar Sarovar project.Kavitha's PIL further points out that the forest clearance sought for the project is still pending before the Supreme Court, and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests was brought under tremendous political pressure to issue a formal clearance in July 2010 subject to the apex court's final orders.
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