Polavaram Project: Centre, State govts responsible for construction delay says Roundtable panel

Guntur: Both the Centre and State governments have pushed the Multipurpose Polavaram Project into crisis, which resulted in the delay of the construction of the project, stated the speakers at a roundtable conference held at Jana Chaitanya Vedika Hall here on Sunday.

Addressing the meeting, Irrigation and Agriculture sector expert Akkineni Bhavani Prasad stated that according to the Bachawat Award, the governments have no power to reduce the height of the project. He further said that if the height of the project is reduced from 45.72 meters to 41.15 meters, water storage capacity of the project would come down. He said the government must pay compensation to the relocation families and recalled that the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government got all the clearances for the project. He remembered that the TDP government had completed 72% of the project work, and the YSRCP government completed 3% of the project work.

Social activist T Lakshminarayana said the YSRCP government spent Rs 4,450 crore on Polavaram Project during the last four years and added that Rs 7,000 crore has been spent for the relocation of the families. He demanded the government to shift the Polavaram Project Authority office to Rajahmundry immediately.

All India Panchayat Parishad national vice-president Dr Jasti Veeranjaneyulu, history lecturer P Pothuraju, Telugu lecturer B Singa Rao were present.