Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Wednesday got a huge relief on the Palamuru Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation Scheme project and the Seethamma Sagar project as the Supreme Court has exempted the ongoing projects from its judgment that quashed a mechanism devised by the Central government to issue environmental clearances. If this exemption was granted, some irrigation projects in Telangana, including Palamuru and Seethamma Sagar projects, could have suffered serious setbacks over the issue of environmental clearances. “Environmental compliance is a mandatory statutory requirement and not a procedural formality capable of being regularised through executive instructions,” the court said. The Supreme Court, however, also made it clear that any project in the future can be taken up and work started only after it receives all required environmental clearances before commencement. The Bench held that the memorandum fundamentally altered the nature of environmental scrutiny envisaged under the 2006 Notification by allowing projects to seek approval after construction had already begun or operations had commenced.