Tamil Nadu   

Palar project foundation laying function cancelled

TIRUPATI: The prestigious Palar project at Kuppam, which the Rajasekhara Reddy government is keen on constructing brushing aside all objections by the Tamil Nadu Government, appears to have run into rough weather yet again.

Kuppam is the constituency of TDP leader N. Chandrababu Naidu and it is in this context that the row gets a political dimension.

The much-hyped programme slated for December 6 when Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy is to lay the foundation stone for the Rs.55-crore project at Kuppam stands cancelled following reports of some ‘last-minute hurdles’ created by the Tamil Nadu government.

Andhra Pradesh and the Tamil Nadu governments have been at loggerheads over the project, proposed across the Palar river at Ganeshpuram near Kuppam.

While Tamil Nadu argues that since the Palar is an inter-state river, the Andhra Pradesh government must have sounded it before taking up the project.

It feels that the construction of the dam across the Palar on the upper reaches would badly affect the irrigational needs of vast chunks of lands located on its side in Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri and other areas.

The Andhra Pradesh government, on the other hand, denies that it was proceeding unilaterally with the project and maintains that it has more than answered all the queries raised by the Tamil Nadu government when a team from the State visited Hyderabad in this connection.

Andhra Pradesh also has reportedly advanced an argument that it was trying to utilise only water flowing into the sea so that it could at least meet the drinking water needs of the backward Kuppam area.

It also contended water rarely flows in excess in the Palar to meet the irrigation needs of the lands in the down reaches.

In fact, it was ‘advantage Andhra Pradesh’ as far as the row was concerned because it (Andrha Pradesh) could not only secure the ‘Stage-1’ clearance from the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment but could also get some of the objections raised by the Tamil Nadu government disallowed by the Supreme Court where the case is pending.

The Palar originating in Karnataka enters Andhra Pradesh at Ganeshpuram off Kuppam and enters Tamil Nadu for its long and final course to join the sea.

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