Polavaram Project Oustees Hold Protest in Knee-deep Water, Demand Relief
Visakhapatnam: Several Adivasi families on Thursday staged a novel protest, standing in knee-deep floodwaters in Ginnela Bazar area of Kunavaram in Chintur division of ASR district.
They were pressing the demand for immediate relief and resettlement and rehabilitation package vis-a-vis the Polavaram project.
Some of the women protesters told the media that top leaders were visiting Vijayawada and Khammam but no one turned to them with a helping hand.
“They are busy supplying food, repairing vehicles and distributing money and food elsewhere, but we are stranded in water for the last four months,’’ said Adilaxmi.
She said children stopped going to school since the monsoons began and daily wage earners were sitting at home with no work.
“Give us an appointment. We all will go to Vijayawada and meet chief minister Chandrababu Naidu and deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan to directly tell them of our problems,’’ said another woman.
Several youngsters also staged a protest at the panchayat office, demanding immediate implementation of the R&R package.
District collector Dinesh Kumar said the Chintoor division was hit by floods for the third time and the administration has been distributing relief to 20,000 families living in camps or living in their villages. The affected were in 118 habitations of Sabari river banks in Chintoor, VR Puram and Kunavaram.
He said around 38,060 project- affected families of 118 habitations in Chintoor division were yet to be rehabilitated. Colonies were being built in Jangareddygudem and Etapaka, to where they would be shifted soon.
Adivasi Mahasabha's legal adviser Ainapurapu Suryanarayana demanded that resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) should be prioritised along with the construction activity at the Polavaram irrigation project.
He said the previous government led by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy failed to fulfil its promise of giving a `10 lakh financial aid to each of the displaced families. “Now that Chandrababu Naidu has pledged to speed up the Polavaram irrigation project, we urge the chief minister to give top priority to the R&R component to every displaced family before commissioning the project,” he added.