Hyderabad: Withthe Supreme Court set to begin hearing on Monday Telangana’s petition challenging the Polavaram-Nallamala Sagar Link Project (PNLP) proposed as “expansion works” on the Godavari River by Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana government held post-haste discussions with legal experts on Sunday to forestall PNLP.

The state government recently approached the Supreme Court protesting the project. The writ petition filed by the state government is scheduled for hearing in the Supreme Court on Monday.

In this context, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy met with senior Supreme Court lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi in Mumbai on Sunday. Together they briefed legal experts to ensure that strong arguments could be made on behalf of the TG government. They also alerted irrigation department officials to keep ready all essential evidence.

The Telangana government’s writ petition in the apex court seeks a halt to the “expansion works” being undertaken by the AP government to link, without the requisite permissions, Polavaram to Banakacherla on the Nallamala Sagar. It requested the Supreme Court to immediately direct the Polavaram Project Authority to stop these works, citing several reasons.

The petition stated that the Polavaram project works should adhere to the initially approved plan and maintained that the proposed expansion works were not legally permissible. It objected to the central government's consideration of the Nallamala Sagar project's pre-feasibility reports without examining Telangana's objections. It requested that clear directives be issued to the Central Water Commission, the Union Ministry of Water Resources, and the Godavari River Management Board in this regard.

The petition stated that the Andhra Pradesh government is preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) in violation of the Central Water Commission's guidelines and requested that these actions be stopped immediately.

It also requested that appropriate orders be issued to prevent the central government from granting environmental clearances or providing any financial assistance for these expansion projects undertaken by Andhra Pradesh.