He made this announcement during his tour of the flood-affected districts of Alluri Sitharamaraju, Eluru and Konaseema.
Polavaram dam under construction. (Creative Commons)
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday, 8 August, said the state government would add ₹3.2 lakh to the ₹6.8 lakh compensation announced by the Union government for those affected by the Polavaram Project under the resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) package.
He made this announcement during his tour of the flood-affected districts of Alluri Sitharamaraju, Eluru and Konaseema.
As many as 48 more “habitations” falling under 32 villages have been covered by the light detection and ranging (LIDAR) survey for implementing the R&R package to the affected families, Reddy said at Kunavaram in Alluri Sitharamaraju district while interacting with the flood-affected villagers.
The chief minister said he requested the Centre to implement the R&R package for the affected families directly at the earliest.
He noted that the state government need not necessarily take credit by distributing the R&R package and observed that the Centre could also directly transfer the funds into their bank accounts.
Reddy hoped that the R&R package for the first phase would be approved by the Central government by August end.
Under the first phase, he said the height of the Polavaram dam would be limited to 41.5 metres and the R&R package would be implemented for all villages and families covered by the LIDAR survey, keeping in mind the first phase contour levels of the flood threat.
As the dam’s height goes further up, the chief minister said more areas and families will come under the R&R package, adding that the state is putting pressure on the Centre to clear the package at the earliest.
The Polavaram project is a multipurpose irrigation project in the Godavari River Eluru District and East Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh.
The project was first proposed in July 1941. The then-chief engineer in the irrigation department of the erstwhile Madras presidency made a survey and presented a proposal for the project.
The project was approved in 1946-47, with an estimated cost of ₹129 crore.
However, it was only in 1980 that the foundation stone for the project was laid. Then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Tanguturi Anjaiah laid the foundation.
In 2004, the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy performed bhoomi pooja with an estimated cost of ₹8,261 crore. The construction of the project was initiated by the subsequent government led by N Chandrababu Naidu.
Ever since the construction of the project began, the neighbouring states of Odisha and Chattisgarh had expressed concern over the floods that may occur there due to the dam and the reservoir with them even moving to the Supreme Court against it.
Telangana, which was a part of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh prior to the reorganisation of the state in 2014, said to the court it is an in-principle agreement for the project but the Center should entrust a neutral central institute to study the impact of Backwater.
In fact, Telangana, in 2017, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court taking objection to the height of the Polavaram project and expressed the fear that when the project is in place, about 100 villages would be submerged.
It had sought a fresh environment impact assessment to ascertain the safety of important temple towns like Bhadrachalam, Mining areas and heavy water plants since the maximum design flood was changed to 50 lakh cusecs from 30 lakh cusecs.
Adding fuel to the fire, Telangana put forth a demand for the transfer of five villages in Bhadrachalam mandal — that were ceded to Andhra Pradesh — back to it to facilitate the construction of a flood embankment to prevent the Godavari flood waters from invading the temple town of Bhadrachalam.
Telangana Transport Minister P Ajay Kumar, who represents Khammam in the Assembly, blamed Andhra Pradesh for the submergence of the temple town of Bhadrachalam in his district.
He said that the Telangana government is helpless in controlling the flood all because Andhra Pradesh has taken away five villages of Bhadrachalam Mandal along with six other mandals at the time of the bifurcation of the state in 2014.
He said that Telangana needs the five villages for taking up effective flood control measures. He demanded that the Centre should take the initiative and introduce a bill in Parliament to this effect
However, Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Minister Ambati Rambabu punched holes in Ajay Kumar’s argument that raising the height of Polvaram’s coffer dam had inundated Bhadrachalam, asking him whether the town was not inundated when there was no Polavaram project at all in the past.
He argued that Polavaram was a national project and that the Andhra Pradesh government was only its implementation agency. The Centre, after consideration of all factors, had given clearance for the project and construction was going on in accordance with the approved design.
(With PTI inputs)
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