Hyderabad: The Central Water Commission (CWC) on Wednesday directed the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) to conduct a joint study on the Polavaram backwaters in Telangana.
Telangana has urged for the survey for a very long time as the state government feared the loss of its land in the merging process under the Polavaram project which is being constructed by the Andhra Pradesh government.
CWC chairman Kushvinder Vohra while addressing a meeting in Delhi announced the approval of a joint survey.
Irrigation officials including AP engineer-in-chief Narayana Reddy and Polavaram project chief engineer Sudhakar, Telangana engineer-in-chief Nagendra Rao and CM’s Officer on Special Duty (Irrigation) Sridhar Rao Deshpande and Kothagudem chief engineer Srinivas Reddy (Telangana) and Odisha engineer-in-chief Asutosh Mishra attended the meeting.
The state had been pushing for a backwater study under the full reservoir level (FRL) of the Polavaram project while the CWC officials demanded proof of the claims.
However, Telangana authorities provided the required documents stating that 99 acres in six villages in Bhadrachalam and Burgampahad mandals would submerge and displayed maps from the survey of India maps to justify their claims.
Finally, permission for the survey was granted with directions given to the Andhra Pradesh government to cooperate in the backwater survey.
State officials in the meeting further clarified that Telangana was not against the construction of the Polavaram project, but had apprehensions over the submergence of areas.
Officials also recalled that as per the directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the joint survey was already conducted on two streams that include, Murredu and Kinnerasani, where it was found that backwaters from the Polavaram project would impact areas in Telangana.
The CWC chairman directed officials concerned to demarcate those areas and asked to conduct a fresh study on six more streams.
The fresh survey should also cover Manuguru heavy water plant and Bhadrachalam temple areas.
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