The Supreme Court said Narendra Modi government behaved like ‘Kumbhakarna’, the mythological character who loved sleeping for long periods, and 19th century story character ‘Rip Van Winkle’, who shirked hard work for failing to submit a report despite grant of two months time on the biodiversity impact of 24 hydro-electric projects on Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river basins in Uttarakhand.
“The report should have been here. It is the fault of the Union government. You are behaving like Kumbhakarna. We are at a loss to understand why the Union government has not placed the report before us. What is your intention? So much time was granted. You are like Rip van Winkle,” the bench said.
“Men must live along with the fish and other aquatic creatures in the rivers on which these hydel projects are proposed to be constructed. And we must also generate electricity. The question is how to maintain the balance,” it said, the bench said there had to be a balanced approach.
Some of the parties, including Bharat Jhunjhunwala and counsel for NGOs Prashant Bhushan and Colin Gonsalves, said the court had constituted a 13-member expert committee to examine the impact of these hydel projects, many of which were being constructed almost ‘bumper to bumper’ on the rivers.
Like the two members of PSUs, it also allowed two representatives of state government and an activist Bharat Jhunjhunwala to participate in the meeting and the report on the design of the barrage based in terms of Ganga basin study by IIT Consortium, will be placed before the 13-member committee on October 29 and the matter will be taken up for further hearing on November 5.
Bhushan said two members, one each from Central Electricity Regulatory Commission and Central Water Commission, had given dissenting notes but the other 11 members had given a report unanimously faulting the mindless planning of hydel projects on rivers, endangering the aqua-culture and environment.