Lift water scheme on Polavaram flayed
Farmers unhappy with plans to take up lift scheme on ISP project
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-11-22 08:19 GMT
Rajahmundry: The state government’s proposal to lift water from Indira Sagar Polavaram project main canals to supply to nearly 3.20 lakh acres land at a cost of Rs 1,272 crore drew flak from several irrigation experts, farm leaders and the people as they feel that such a move will hamper the expeditious execution of the project and flayed the Chief Minister for trying to politicise the issue to derive mileage in Telangana by not taking up the project in its original design.
The experts say that out of the proposed 7.20 lakh acres land to get water supply for cultivation of the crops by execution of the project, at present, water is being supplied to four lakh acres land from both the left main canal and right main canal by taking up lift irrigation schemes Pushkara and Tatipudi respectively with each scheme pumping water to two lakh acres land.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has proposed to lift water from both the canals to supply water for cultivation to the remaining part of 3.20 lakh acre and directed the irrigation officials to ensure the lift project executed and water supplied by next kharif season.
They wonder how the proposed lift project would be executed at such a short period when several projects including the Chinthalapudi lift project where the foundation stone was laid in 2009, are still pending execution for long. They say that as the Polavaram main canals are designed for navigation too, their width will spread up to 80 meters. Water flows in these canals by gravity at seven feet depth and if the water to be lifted from them, the water level may be about 2.5 ft in which it would be not possible to lift water on regular basis.
They instead suggested to the state government to complete the Dumm-ugudem Tail Pond link project connecting God-avari river to Krishna river to facilitate flow of water and ensure supply to the Krishna delta and also to the upcoming capital city near Guntur.
The farm leaders expressed displeasure over the failure of state government to get four more mandals along with seven mandals in Khammam district to be merged into the state. They say that it requires nearly 90,000 acres land to provide relief and rehabilitation to all the project affected people from the vulnerable mandals and with the merger of seven mandals, only a part of the total lot is acquired. They feel that if Dummugudem, Cherva, Venkatapuram and Vaziveedu mandals are also included, it will help us to find no resistance from displaced persons for execution of the project.
Polavaram Sadhana Samithi leader M.V. Suryanarayana Raju said, “We are going to meet Union minister for urban development M. Venkaiah Naidu during his scheduled visit to Vijayawada on Novem-ber 29 to seek the Centre's intervention to expedite the execution of the project.”
Irrigation expert K. Haranath said, “It takes nearly three years to complete Polavaram so is the case with the propo-sed lift project. There is no point in going for te-mporary schemes by sp-ending huge amount of public money.”
Analysts say that CM Naidu is being misguided by some people to take up lift scheme to favour his trusted lieutenant and noted contractor.