Floods in Godavari put focus on plight of those displaced due to Polavaram project
According to original estimates of 2004, the project envisages displacement of as many as 44,570 families from 271 revenue villages of eight revenue blocks but the number went up to 98,818 families, 80% of whom are tribals in 2014-15. By 2021, the number of families to be evacuated had gone up to 1.06 lakh.
The recent heavy floods in Godavari river again brought to the fore plight of thousands of families to be displaced due to the Polavaram major irrigation project being constructed on the river in Andhra Pradesh’s West Godavari district.
Due to tardy progress in rehabilitation and resettlement of project evacuees, several villages located along the river course in the backwaters of Polavaram project suffered massive inundation during the floods in July second week.
Worst sufferers were the residents in the seven submergence mandals (revenue blocks) — Chintoor, Yetakapa, Kunavaram, V R Puram, Bhadrachalam (rural), (now part of Alluri Sitarama Raju district), Kukkunuru and Velerpadu (part of Eluru district) — which were de-linked from Telangana and merged with Andhra Pradesh post bifurcation of combined state through an amendment to AP Reorganisation Act in June 2014.
According to original estimates of 2004, the project envisages displacement of as many as 44,570 families from 271 revenue villages of eight revenue blocks but the number went up to 98,818 families, 80% of whom are tribals in 2014-15. By 2021, the number of families to be evacuated had gone up to 1.06 lakh.
These families are supposed to be rehabilitated in alternative locations like Buttaigudem, Jeelugumilli, Darbhagudem, Pedaryagudem etc., apart from safer locations within the same mandals, closer to their original habitations. Each family will get a monetary compensation of ₹6.8 lakh to ₹10 lakh depending on the location, apart from land to land and housing facilities.
“Apart from a few cases, there has been no rehabilitation of the submergence villages. A few hundred tribal families whose agriculture lands were submerged due to the Polavaram project were paid monetary compensation, rest there was no progress in construction of new settlements to rehabilitate the affected families,” said Chintoor resident J Venkatesh.
As per the revised estimates in 2017-18, the total cost of Polavaram shot up to ₹ 55,548 crore. But it was scaled down to ₹ 47,725 crore by the Revised Cost Committee appointed by the Union Jal Shakti ministry. Of this, ₹28,191 crore is meant only for rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) of the project evacuees.
Interestingly, the Polavaram irrigation project was declared as the national project by the Centre in 2014 itself and therefore, it has to bear 100% project cost. Instead of releasing money from time to time, the Centre is asking the state to spend first and get reimbursement later. But the state government is claiming fund crunch to take up the R&R works.
During a visit to some of the submergence villages of Polavaram like Koyuguru and Chatti of Chintoor block on July 27, chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy said that it was the Centre’s responsibility to provide the R&R package to Polavaram project evacuees. Reddy said he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pursue the matter.
“I have written to Delhi several times and discussed the issue in every meeting with the higher officials. Though the state government is spending funds on the project, the Centre is not releasing funds on time. We are yet to get over ₹2,900 crore from the Centre,” he said.
Since the implementation of R&R is a huge task, the Jagan government has proposed to impound water in Polavaram reservoir in phases. In the first phase, we will fill up the water in the reservoir only up to the contour level of 41.15 metres, as per the Central Water Commission directions on dam safety, he said.
“The dam will be fully filled up to the full reservoir level (FRL) of 45.72 metres only after three years and by then, all the evacuees will be paid compensation and rehabilitated. Till all the families get R&R package, we won’t fill the water up to the FRL, but let out the water through the dam,” he said.
Floods expose hollowness in R&R
Though the Jagan government says the submergence of villages in the backwaters of Polavaram will be minimal at the contour level of 41.15 metres of the dam, the recent floods have shown that even at this level, the submergence is too high.
Kukunoor resident Thunga Ramesh said, “Some of the R&R colonies constructed four years ago at places like Kivvaka, Pedarayagudem and Damarcherla, where hundreds of of Polavaram evacuees were shifted, were also submerged during floods.”
“Initially, the water level at Polavaram was maintained at 35-36 feet only, not the first contour level of 41.15 metres, and the remaining water was let out to the downstream. Yet, the colonies located at a higher altitude were submerged,” Ramesh, a PhD student, said.
Similar complaint was lodged by P Nani, who runs a medical shop in V R Puram, another submergence mandal. Many of the villages in these mandals get submerged only if the water level at Polavaram dam is at 45.72 meters. “But in the recent floods, some of the villages were completely inundated and many others got water up to roof-level,” Nani said.
“Everybody knows that we have to move out of our villages one day or the other. The sooner we are paid and shifted, the better. We cannot bear this loss anymore,” Nani said.
T’gana seeks re-survey of submergence
Meanwhile, Telangana, which also suffered heavy submergence due to floods has asked the Union ministry of Jal Shakti to conduct a comprehensive study on the effect of Polavaram backwaters.
In a letter to Polavaram Project Authority on Saturday, state engineer-in-chief (irrigation) C Muralidhar requested that the Centre commission a study on the extent of area getting affected in Telangana due to backwaters upstream of the Polavaram project.
“The backwater studies carried out by the Central Water Commission was far for the maximum probable flood discharge of only 36 lakhs cusecs, which has been enhanced to 50 lakh cusecs later. It does not contain critical information like backwater levels and cross sectional profiles at the town of Bhadrachalam and at Manuguru Heavy Water Plant located in Telangana,” he said.
