The Uttarakhand government’s hopes to obtain a Central nod for its 20 hydropower projects dashed on Monday as the Union Jal Shaki Ministry remained silent on its approval.

Now, the state government is saying it would wait for the Supreme Court verdict in September.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami raised the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 25 during a meeting with him requesting him to give approval since the 24 hydropower projects were cleared by the apex court and is awaiting Central nod for several years.

The Uttarakhand government was represented by state Power Secretary Dr. R Meenakshi Sundaram at a meeting of the stakeholders called by the Central government on Monday. Union ministry officials took down the demands of the state spelt out by her during the meeting but they neither agreed for their clearance nor denied the demands.

However, officials of the state Power Department informed that the Jal Shakti Ministry authorities recalled in a similar meeting at the PMO in 2019 described these projects as not feasible.

In his reply, Sundaram informed the Union ministry officials that the Supreme Court-empowered Experts’ Body-2 report in 2020 cleared the projects and it must be from its perspective as against what transpired in the 2019 PMO meeting.

“Our submission is that this expert body was constituted by the government of India on orders of the Supreme Court of India. Let us go by the reports of the Expert Body. If they are sanctioning 10 and rejecting the remaining projects, we are okay with that. We are not disputing with the Expert body report as that is what we had been requesting for with the Centre” said Sundaram.

It is significant to note that the SC had banned 70 hydropower projects in the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi valleys after post the 2013 rain disaster. Later, as the matter came up for hearing, two expert panels were formed to examine the projects. The first panel declared 10 projects non-controversial in 2014 while the second body, in its 2020 report, did not make any adverse remarks against the other 10 projects.