The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Lower Polavaram project height: CPI

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 12, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Lower Polavaram project height: CPI

By Our Staff Reporter

KHAMMAM, DEC. 11. The Communist Party of India (CPI) asked the Government today to lower the height of the Polavaram project proposed on Godavari river to minimise the submergence problem in the district.

Addressing a news conference here, the party district secretary, Sidhi Venkateswarlu, said that at least one lakh acres of agriculture land would be affected and over one lakh people would be displaced if the project was designed with the dam height at 154 feet.

The CPI leader said the project height should be reduced by ten feet to minimise the problem of displacement. Over 270 villages would be affected by the project.

The riverside villages in Bhadrachalam division would bear the brunt of submergence. The party had already presented a memorandum to the Government on the issue. It would raised on the floor of the State Legislative Assembly in the current session. He said the party had taken up a campaign to organise the people in the affected village.

District-level meet

A district-level conference would be organised in Khammam on December 13 to discuss the displacement being caused by the Polavaram project. The party would organise the people in the affected areas.

Two teams would make village visits from December 15 and meet the people. The sadassu would be organised at Bhadrachalm at the end of the campaign on December 27.

He said the Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who was keen on extending irrigational facilities to the upland areas, should have an order of priority in implementing the new projects.

He urged him to take up the Dummugudem lift scheme first as it was aimed at benefiting farmers in the backward region of Telangana.

`Not against Polavaram'

The CPI was not against the construction of Polavaram. But the Government must initiate measure to safeguard the interests of farmers in the upstream reaches of the river before taking up the work on Polavaram project. He said his party had already organised meetings at different mandal centres on the issue.

The people in Bhadrachalam divisions were agitated over the reports of large-scale submergence by the project and the Government must try to dispel their fears.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh