PNS|Vijayawada
Congress party senior leader and former MP KVP Ramachandra Rao deplored that the apathy of the Central government has badly affected the Polavaram project works and the Centre’s negligence has made the project an orphan.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, KVP regretted the step-motherly treatment of the Polavaram project which led to an inordinate delay in the completion of the project. He said that over 300 TMC of water is going to waste into the sea since the project is not completed.
KVP Ramachandra Rao request the Prime Minister to take a holistic view of national interest and instruct the concerned Ministry of Jalshakti and Polavaram Project Authority to take up and complete the Polavaram National Irrigation Project to FRL/MWL of +150 ft expeditiously without any deviation by drawing funds from Union exchequer without burdening the State finances.
“The completion of the Polavaram project is already delayed by five years and now even the Tarot Readers and Parrot Astrologers are finding it difficult to predict its possible date of completion,” KVP lamented.
“The project is now in a technical quandary and construction work of ECRF Dam has been stalled for 3 years due to the decisions taken by political heads of the Government instead of leaving the execution work to Engineers and Contractors. The main ECRF Dam was required to be provided with a cut-off wall of plastic concrete diaphragm wall,” he explained to the PM.
The Congress leader stated that the diaphragm wall was declared to be completed in all respects in 2018 June by the then government. The diaphragm wall, which is the foundation for the ECRF Dam and which is to be built to withstand even a speedy flow of 50 lakh cusecs of flood waters in Godavari, was damaged and washed away due to the mere flow of flood water around 20 lakh cusecs, he regretted. “What would have been the consequences, if the same thing had happened to the Diaphragm wall after the construction of the ECRF Dam over it?” he asked.
The Union Ministry of Jalshakti, the Central Water Commission (CWC), and the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA), who are technically responsible to oversee the construction, are maintaining deliberate silence.
KVP said that the Union Ministry of Jalshakti, based on a report from the technical committee, has decided to restrict Project’s FRL/MWL to +140 ft (+41.15 meters) instead of +150 ft (+45.72 Meters). As per GWDT Award and agreement entered among the States, the FRL/MWL of Polavaram shall be +150 Feet, he explained to the PM.
The AP Government is not in a position to provide funds for Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement works costing approximately to a tune of Rs.30,000 Crore between MDDL of 140 feet and FRL of 150 feet and hence not taking up the R&R works.
