Governor’s powers: Indiabulls challenges interpretation in HC

The company is facing people’s agitation against its project,mainly on the ground that the project will usurp water from Upper Wardha dam meant for farmers. A petition has been filed by the Backlog Removal Committee,a citizen’s body,challenging the water supply. The committee has cited the Governor’s directives to remove Vidarbha’s backlog,which also includes irrigation backlog.

The company said the Rs 14,000-crore project would provide 1,200 MW power to the state at Rs 3.26 per unit and it has already spent Rs 1,250 crore on it.

The government has assured to provide 87.6 million cubic metres of water to the project from the Upper Wardha dam. Petitioner committee’s senior counsel K H Deshpande had argued last week that the Governor’s directives are of constitutional nature and are,as such,binding on the state government. He said Vidarbha’s irrigation backlog is 68.47 per cent and Amravati has a backlog of 70,000 hectares. He claimed that supply of water from the dam will reduce Vidarbha’s irrigation by 23,219 hectares.

Deshpande had also said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced a package for Vidarbha’s crisis-ridden farmers,which included one for irrigation. So,supply of water meant for irrigation was also a violation of the PM’s package,he had argued.

The company has now filed a separate petition,challenging the interpretation of the Governor’s powers. “The Hon’ble Governor has no power or authority to issue directives in the nature and scope as is being interpreted. The petitioner submits that if at all it is a case that such directions have been issued by the Governor to the State Government and its functionaries,it will be a case where the Governor has been wrongly advised that he has powers to do so. Such a situation is not contemplated in a Parliamentary form of democracy. It is submitted that the role of the Governor is only a supervisory role,” the petition said.