Rythu Sangham voices concern over Polavaram

Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham expressed concern over the fate of Polavaram project after the Minister for Water Resources announced that the officials noticed the damage to the diaphragm wall on March 8, 2020 and since then the government has been appealing to the Central Water Commission (CWC) and the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) to visit the project site to assess the damage.

The State committee of the Rythu Sangham said that it was disturbing and also surprising that the Minister had also announced that the government had no idea when the project would be completed.

Rythu Sangham president Y Kesava Rao and secretary M Suryanarayana of Sangham said in a statement here on Monday that it was the responsibility of the Central government to construct the Polavaram project as per the AP Reorganisation Act and it was also its responsibility to inspect the construction and release funds from time to time for early completion of the project. However, the State government had remained silent for the last two years for reasons better known to it when the Central authorities did not inspect the project so far.

They said that it was not proper on the part of the State government to announce that they had no idea when the project would be completed though earlier it had claimed that water would be released from the project this year. If the project was completed or not, since most of the upper and lower cofferdams were completed, once the monsoon sets in the Girijan areas would be submerged.