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HC allows Wardha water for power plant

State assures court that 328 MCM water will be supplied for irrigation.

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The thermal power plant in Vidarbha got a major reprieve on Thursday.

The Bombay high court refused to stop the Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) from diverting 87.6 million cubic metres (MCM) of water from Upper Wardha Irrigation Project for the thermal project.

The project of Sophia Power, a subsidiary of Indiabulls Limited, is in Amravati district. A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and justice Niteen Jamdar refused to issue restraining orders after the state assured the court that 328 MCM water will be supplied for irrigation and construction of distribution channels will continue unabated.

The reprieve will only be for the current year because the state informed the court that the distribution was possible due to sufficient rainfall.

The orders were passed while hearing a bunch of petitions filed opposing the project. Additional government pleader PG Lad told the court that the state government was willing to make a statement that 200 MCM water will be supplied for irrigation in Vidarbha.

The quantity, according to the Central Water Commission, will be required to irrigate 75,000 hectare of agricultural land in the region.

Madhav Jamdar, who represented Vidarbha Development Board, however, said that last year VIDC has supplied 328 MCM water from Upper Wardha project for irrigation and if that is reduced to 200 MCM, the situation in the region will only worsen.
He added that 373 farmers from Vidarbha have committed suicide in the the last one year.

In May, the department of industries signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Indiabulls Limited, agreeing to supply 87.6 MCM water for the thermal po wer project from Upper Wardha Irrigation Project.

The decision not only faced steep opposition from the local farming community and political leadership but also raked the old issue of backlog of development in the region, where more than 1,000 farmers have committed suicide in the last decade.

The Society for Backlog Removal and Development, Amravati, an organisation of locals and some other individuals have filed petitions challenging the decision to allocate 87.6 MCM water from the irrigation project for the upcoming thermal power plant.
The society comprises social and political activists and claims to represent the farming community in Vidharbha region.

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