State writes to CWC to address its concerns on Polavaram backwaters

The State government has written to the CWC to initiate immediate steps to address the concerns raised by it over the impact of the Polavaram Project backwaters.

Hyderabad: The State government has on Wednesday written to the Central Water Commission (CWC) to initiate immediate steps to address the concerns raised by it over the impact of the Polavaram Project backwaters. In the letter addressed to the Chairman of the Central Water Commission, State Engineer-in-Chief (General) C Muralidhar requested the Commission as well as the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) to resolve the issues in line with the submission made by the Centre in its compliance affidavit submitted before the Supreme Court.

The union Government had filed the compliance affidavit on September 1 stating that officials of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana had given their consent for a joint survey and based on the survey report, necessary measures should be taken by the PPA and the Government of AP and “thus the matter was resolved for taking further actions”. However, the stand of the Centre was contrary to the ground reality as none of the activities were undertaken so far. It all turned out to be mere ‘eyewash’ and the assurances made in various meetings organized by the CWC/ PPA were not implemented.

Telangana had already stressed the need for formation of protection bunds as recommended in the approved DPR of the Polavaram project. The State also called for conducting a public hearing afresh as some 954 acres of area was coming under submergence with the water impounded in the project at the Full Reservoir Level (FRL). In the backdrop of the huge impact of the backwaters following the recent floods, it called for steps to conduct a joint survey of the river stretch between Dummugudem anicut and the State border to ascertain the impact of the backwaters and drainage congestion on important structures and pockets.