HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh Government on Wednesday deputed a team of engineers from Nizamabad to Babli site to verify whether Maharashtra has stalled all work on the project as agreed to by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh at a meeting in Delhi meeting on Tuesday.

The team has been asked to submit a report to the Government in a couple of days.

Undertaking

Disclosing this at a press conference here on Wednesday, Major Irrigation Minister P. Lakshmaiah reiterated that Mr. Deshmukh had given an undertaking to Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz to put on hold the works till May 20. He refuted reports quoting Mr. Deshmukh as being directed by the Union Minister to maintain status quo on the project. "He might have said like that with a view to keep the people of Maharasthra in good spirits," he said.

Referring to the agitations in the past few days by the displaced families at Gundlakamma project in Prakasam district, Mr Lakshmaiah said a three-member committee headed by the additional secretary, Irrigation, A. K. Jain, would visit the place on Saturday to resolve the issues. He said the Government had already paid compensation for all lands and properties coming under submergence. The project provided irrigation to 30,000 acres during kharif as planned.

Contour level

He said the Government was acquiring about 1,200 acres of land beyond the 30,000-acre contour level. Even as the exercise was on to identify the owners of these lands, the families were agitating for compensation. "This is unjust," he said.

Earlier, the Minister reviewed the progress of works on different projects which were to provide irrigation to 7.5 lakh acres during kharif, a target fixed by the Chief Minister.

He asked the chief engineers of these projects to be considerate to the displaced families.

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