New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Union Jalshakti Ministry to consider the Writ Petition on illegalities and corruption in execution of the under-construction Polavaram multi-purpose project on the Godavari river.
The Bench of Chief Justice Narendrabhai Patel and Justice Harishankar rejected a plea of a lawyer of the Centre that the project is located in Andhra Pradesh and so Delhi High Court has no jurisdiction to issue such an order.
This stand was rejected outright by the Court, saying "you can't say like this."
It asked the Centre to take the petition of Dr Pentapati Pulla Rao as complaint and take action expeditiously after hearing Rao. his lawyer submitted that there are a large scale irregularities in the Polavaram project and it lacks transparency. He submitted that the Centre is not taking action on illegalities and allegations of corruption, pointing out that the project' cost jumped from Rs 16,100 crore to Rs 58,000 crore and the government even ignored the CAG reports on corruption.
The Court asked the Union Jalshakti ministry: "Why don't you take action on the allegations of petitioner?"