BJP pitches for Bhadradri

Rajahmundry: BJP to intensify its campaign to restore Bhadrachalam division into East Godavari of Seemandhra region as the Centre is making brisk moves to bifurcate the state to carve out a separate Telangana state.

As the Union ministers from Telangana region met the GoM on Telangana in New Delhi on Monday and submitted their representations in order to maintain status quo on Bhadrachalam division in Khammam district in Telangana state while bifurcating the state, the BJP unit of Seemandhra region is furious by saying that the Bhadrachalam division was originally a part of East Godavari and it was merged into Khammam district only for administrative convenience earlier.

BJP leaders maintain that they want Bhadra-chalam division to be part of Seemandhra region to ensure the expeditious execution of ongoing multi-purpose Indira Sagar Polavaram project as it is getting delayed for several years for varied reasons.

The party leaders raised apprehensions by saying that in the event of the state getting bifurcated, the execution of the project will get hampered and it would become mandatory to obtain requisite permission from the new state and the Telan-gana leaders are much against the execution of the project saying that it would inundate the tribal areas and deprive them of their livelihood in Khammam district.

The BJP even blamed the Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K. Chandrasekhar Rao of instigating the Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh and Odisha to take to legal course on the pretext of causing inundation of their areas in order to stall the execution of the project.

Once the project gets executed, it is expected to generate revenue of about Rs 50,000 crore per annum as the project helps take up cultivation of crops in thousands of acres of land, supplies drinking water to thousands of villages and even generates 950 mw of power from its hydro-electric project.

The hydro-electric project at lower Sileru river at present is generating 460 mw of power at a generation cost of 40 paise per unit and its capacity is designed to be enhanced by 230 mw, which means, nearly 690 mw of power will be generated from this project throu-ghout the year.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders and activists are staging agitations in several parts of Godavari districts with a demand seeking merger of Bhadrachalam division in Seemandhra.

BJP national executive committee member Somu Veerraju said, “Though our party is in favour of Telangana, we asked our national leadership to support the Centre only when it safeguards the rights and interests of the people from Seemandhra region before going for a split.”