Telangana BJP president G. Kishan Reddy today wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that it was not against the construction of Polavaram project and wanted some changes to this Polavaram Bill in the interest of both the States.
In his letter, Kishan Reddy stated, “The present design of the Polavaram project permanently curbs the inland water transportation to land locked Telangana State. If the project design is tweaked a little bit, Telangana as well Maharashtra will benefit if the inland water transportation of Sea Going Vessels go from Bay of Bengal on River Godavari. This will boost the economy of the State with manufacturing industries, tourism and shipping industries cropping up all along the River Godavari giving direct and indirect employment to about 1 crore people. We have presented this plan of inland water navigation on River Godavari to Shri NitinGadkariji, who has in principle agreed to it and promised to sympathetically consider it. But for this to become a reality we need to change in the design of Polavaram project without in any way affecting the benefits of this project. Such alternative designs are already made available by experts and can be considered.
“Recently, an ordinance was promulgated by the President of India transferring seven mandals belonging to Khammam district of Telangana into Andhra Pradesh State. The reason mentioned was that the land in these mandals is needed for rehabilitating the people being displaced under this project. But the fact is that since this project is being taken up as a National Project, all the rehabilitation measures are undertaken by the Central Government only. So these mandals can be taken into the control of the Centre until the rehabilitation measures are undertaken and then these mandals can be transferred back to Telangana state. There is no need to transfer this land to AP as the project’s responsibility is of the Central Government. In this context, I would like to mention the fact that we are not against the transfer of land that is being submerged under this project to AP State. We are only concerned with the land that is not being submerged under this project and is being transferred on the pretext of rehabilitation. The entire village ‘gram sabhas’ in these seven mandals have passed resolutions to remain in the Telangana State only. Massive agitations are going on the ground protesting against the transfer of their land to AP. Most of the inhabitants in these seven mandals are poor tribals who are totally distraughton this issue.
If these seven mandals are transferred to AP, then Telangana will lose the 460 MW Sileru Power Project, which is the only Hydro power project that generates hydro power all around the year. Telangana region in the then combined state had 56% of the power utilization since most of the farmers in the state use bore wells for crops since they do not have surface water availability. Now the Telangana State is already power stressed and we cannot afford to lose this hydro power project on the behest of Polavaram Project.
“Our proposal of Central Government taking over the land will serve a two-fold purpose. It will allay the fear among Andhra Pradesh people that if the 7 Mandals are with Telangana State, then the incumbent government may hamper construction. And since the Mandals are going to be remerged into Telangana, the people of Telangana will not have any sense of deprivation of the benefits. We hope you will sympathetically consider our appeal”. (NSS)
