The Andhra Pradesh Assembly on Tuesday by a resolution urged the Centre to go ahead with the Polavaram multi-purpose project and make a legislation replacing the Ordinance to merge with Andhra Pradesh the villages which may be submerged by the project waters.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who moved the resolution that was unanimously passed later, said this irrigation project could be constructed only by merging with the State the 200 villages threatened with submerging.Naidu demanded that the project be completed as per the design prepared by the Central Water Commission (CWC).
He said the project would ensure irrigation and drinking water to five or six districts. He clarified that the interests of Telangana would not be affected by the project.The Central Government last month issued the Ordinance transferring over 200 villages of Khammam district of Telangana to Andhra Pradesh. It was apparently aimed at avoiding any dispute between Andhra Pradesh and the newly-created State of Telangana.
The Telangana Assembly on June 14 had, however, passed a resolution urging the Centre to cancel the Ordinance. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Government has threatened to challenge it in the Supreme Court. Telangana had also observed a bandh on May 29 to protest the Ordinance. The Telangana Government also demands change in the project’s design.
The previous UPA Government at the Centre had announced that the Polavaram project would be constructed as a national project. It means the Centre would bear 90 per cent of the cost of Rs20,000-crore project to be erected across river Godavari.