Khargone: The Centre has given the go ahead for partial work to resume on the controversial Maheshwar Dam in Madhya Pradesh's Khargone district.
Work on the dam was halted after the ban by Environment Ministry on the grounds that the people displaced by the dam had not been rehabilitated. The nod from the Centre came after a meeting between the State Chief Secretary and the Prime Minister's Principal Secretary. Work will now restart on the gates of the dam.
In April end, the Ministry of Environment and Forest had suspended all work on the controversial dam for non compliance of environmental guidelines. However, NDTV later found that despite the ban, work was on in full flow.
Later, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan had written a letter to the Prime Minister seeking intervention accusing the Environment Ministry of deliberately stalling several projects in the state and even said that it seemed as if it was agenda driven. The letter also said that the stoppage of the project would result in loss of 7.2 lakhs units of power per day starting in 2010.
He followed up the letter by personally coming to Delhi this week and meeting the Prime Minister.
The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister also publicly attacked the Environment Minister saying he was acting like an activist of the Narmada Bachao Andolan.