Govt. denies abandoning Polavaram project

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JULY 26. The Minister for Major Irrigation, Mr. M. Venkateswara Rao, has denied that the State Government has abandoned the multi-purpose Polavaram project across the Godavari.

In fact, the Centre had constituted a seven-member committee comprising representatives of the Central Water Commission and the co-basin States on July 14 to go into all aspects of the Polavaram and Inchampalli projects.

The Minister was responding to a report quoting a written reply by the Union Minister of State for Water Resources, Ms. Bijoya Chakravarty, to an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha that the Polavaram project had been given up. Mr. Venkateswara Rao said the statement was surprising since it was quite contrary to the information furnished by the Government.

The high-power committee, he said, would be chaired by the CWC Member (Works, Planning Projects) while the Chief Engineer, Irrigation Monitoring Office of the CWC, would be its member- secretary. There would be one representative each from Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Orissa, not below the rank of Chief Engineer, in addition to another Chief Engineer of the CWC.

The constitution of this committee was the outcome of a meeting that the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, had with the then Union Minister for Water Resources, Dr. C. P. Thakur, a few months ago. While its terms of reference were yet to be framed, it was broadly understood that the committee would examine the hydologocial and environmental aspects of Inchampalli and Polavaram, the inter-State implications and the impact on local population. A Government Order to this effect was expected to be issued by the Centre soon, he added.

Mr. Venkateswara Rao further pointed out that the Government had originally proposed the Polavaram project with an irrigation potential of 7.19 lakh acres and utilisation of 301 tmcft of water at a cost of Rs. 10,680 crores.

He said that criticism by some parties that the Government was not keen on utilising the Godavari waters was unfounded because it had already created five investigation circles out of the 11 proposed in the basin at Nizamsagar, Yellampalli, Dummagudem and Pranahita-Penuganga besides a medium project at Adilabad.

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