The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked attorney general of India Mukul Rohtagi to clarify the Centre’s stand on allowing a cluster of six hydro projects, which claim to have all the necessary environmental clearances, to go ahead with construction work in Uttarakhand and also tell the apex court if it will undertake to compensate the companies in the event the government decides to scrap the projects in the aftermath of last year’s disaster in the state.
A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra asked the AG to assist in deciding the future of hydroelectricity projects in state and inform about the collective impact of these six projects on the environment. The six projects are Jhala Koti, NTPC’s Lata Tapovan, Bhyundar Ganga, Kotibhel-IA, GMR’s Alaknanda Badrinath and Khirao Gango.
“We want the AG, the competent authority to argue on this… The government should undertake to pay them money if they want to scrap the projects… The courts have power to even adjudicate that,” Justice Misra said
“The government must look at tapping natural resources for electricity…Tapping these natural resources should not come in way of environment,” it observed.