more-in The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a special leave petition filed by Hayathuddin seeking a stay on Kaleshwaram project work, stating that the project was being executed without taking up proper rehabilitation measures in submergence villages. Mr. Hayathuddin moved the Supreme Court after the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad set aside the stay on project work ordered by the National Green Tribunal (NGT). According to a member of the team of counsel appearing for the Government of Telangana, the Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Navin Sinha felt that there were no merits in the petition for hearing. Counsel stated that the court admonished the petitioner, asking him why he had approached the NGT in New Delhi instead of going to its bench in Chennai. Further, the court faulted the petitioner for moving the petition nine years after the project was taken up first, counsel said, adding that the petitioner had not even mentioned the clearances secured by the project such as environmental, inter-state, forest, hydrological and others. He noted that there was a petition pending in the NGT in New Delhi on its jurisdiction to hear the petition against the Kaleshwaram project, following the High Court judgment. Minister hails decision Meanwhile, Minister for Irrigation T. Harish Rao, who was in New Delhi, welcomed the dismissal of the petition by the Supreme Court and said it was a victory of justice. Criticising the Congress for filing nearly 100 petitions against the project in different forums through its activists, he said the government had all the details of who was funding the cases. “We will expose those Congress leaders, who often claim that they are working for the benefit of people, who are behind the cases against Kaleshwaram on the floor of the Assembly itself at an appropriate time,” Mr. Harish Rao said. The approach of the Opposition and those such as Telangana Joint Action Committee chairman (TJAC) M. Kodandaram should be to speed up works on projects but not to become a hurdle, he said. Dismissal of the petition to stall the Kaleshwaram project work would increase the confidence of people and the engineers, who had been made to go round courts and tribunals, instead of focusing on project work, the Minister said and suggested that Congress leaders realise their mistakes in opposing projects aimed at benefiting a large number of people. He stated that the first results of the Kaleshwaram project would be visible soon by the year-end.

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