Line cleared for grant of environmental clearances for Palamuru-Ranga Reddy lift scheme. The Supreme Court recently struck down the Office Memorandum issued by the Union Ministry of Environment and Climate Change regarding permits.

• Similarly for Gauravelli and Seethamma Sagar..
• The Supreme Court lifted the previous stay orders
• BRS Sarkar's tireless efforts for EAC

Hyderabad, July 29 (Namaste Telangana): The line has been cleared for the grant of environmental clearances for the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy lift scheme. The Supreme Court recently struck down the Office Memorandum issued by the Union Ministry of Environment and Climate Change regarding permits. Thus, the way to obtain permits for the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy project as well as Seethammasagar and Gauravelli reservoirs has been paved. Details.. Irrigation and other projects are taken up without environmental permits, after which cases of violations are registered and permits are sanctioned with fines.

In this context, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has issued an Office Memorandum (OM) in 2021 to lay down a standard operating procedure for identifying and remediating cases of violations under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006 Act to grant further EC to projects started without obtaining Environmental Clearance (EC). However, the OM issued by the Center was challenged in the Supreme Court by 'Vanashakti' and many environmental NGOs. It was contended that the Environment (Conservation) Act-1986 was against regularization of projects started without permission and would fall under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. It said that the requirement of obtaining prior environmental clearance will be waived.

Concurring with the arguments, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan banned the grant of post-facto ECs in May 2025. After that, many challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court. The petitions were reviewed in November 2025 by a bench comprising the then Chief Justice, Justice BR Gavai, Justice K Vinodchandran and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan. The Vanashakti judgment was withdrawn, stating that it was fundamentally inconsistent with earlier judgments. It has been decided to conduct a full investigation. Next, the bench headed by the current Supreme Court Chief Justice Suryakant completed the hearing of the writ petitions in April last. Judgment is reserved. The bench of CJI Suryakant, Justice Jay Yamalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul Pancholi announced the verdict on Wednesday. The Center canceled the OM issued in 2021. Protects permissions already granted.

Relief for Telangana projects

Telangana projects got a huge relief in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict. Palamuru-Ranga Reddy Upliftment Scheme (PRLIS), Seethammasagar Project and Gauravelli Reservoir environmental clearances have been cleared. Farmers from Andhra Pradesh and Kurnool have filed petitions in the NGT alleging that the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy and Dindi lift projects are being carried out without permits. The Chennai bench of the NGT, which conducted the investigation, ordered the Telangana government to pay a fine of 1.5% of the total cost of the projects, i.e. Rs 920 crore. Similarly, petitions were filed against the Seethamma Sagar project and a fine of Rs.53 crore was imposed. Goravelli reservoir was previously proposed with a capacity of 1.8 TMC, but later the Telangana government increased it to 8 TMC. In this context, many victims have approached the NGT saying that the impact of flooding will increase. However, in the process of sanctioning the ECs in respect of the respective projects, the judgment of Vanashakti came into effect. Even though the Appraisal Committee got approval, the Center did not grant EC to the respective projects. are still pending. With the recent verdict of the Supreme Court, the way for granting permissions has been paved.

KCR Sarkar's tireless efforts

Former CM KCR worked tirelessly to get environmental clearances for the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy lift scheme. Since the 34th EAC meeting under the Ministry of Environment held in 2022 by the BRS government for environmental clearances for PRLIS, efforts have been made intensively. But, the EAC kept raising doubts and postponing the reports. At one stage it rejected the grant of environmental clearances to the project and set aside the proposals. However, the Telangana government submitted the data requested by the EAC. Finally, in the 48th meeting of EAC held on June 27, 2023, the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy project proposals were discussed. Finally, in the 49th EAC, Rajat Kumar, the then Special Chief Secretary of the State Irrigation and Drainage Department, once again made arguments on behalf of the Telangana government. They appealed to the EAC to grant environmental clearances to the project expeditiously and to satisfy the thirst of the drought-prone areas. Satisfied with all of them, the EAC has recommended the Center to grant environmental clearances to the project by September 2023. However, in the wake of the subsequent Supreme Court ruling, the permits have remained pending ever since. At present, the court's judgment has paved the way for the granting of permissions.

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