GUNTUR: The Kondaveeti Vagu floodwater lift scheme would be completed in three months to save the new capital Amaravati from inundation and Amaravati waterway would be ready on Kondaveeti Vagu. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu laid the foundation stone for the Kondaveeti Vagu lift scheme by unveiling the pylon on the Krishna river bund at Seetanagaram on Wednesday.
Addressing a public meeting, he said that the public faced flooding and marooning for decades due to overflowing of Kondaveeti Vagu, but now these difficulties would be stopped with the lift scheme. Mr Naidu said that 14,000 acres of farmlands were getting marooned for the past 100 years due to Kondaveeti Vagu. So, the government took the suggestions of experts and proposed the lift scheme as a permanent solution. He said that 5,000 cusecs of water would be pumped into Krishna river and Buckingham Canal which would be useful to Krishna Delta. He claimed that earlier Telugu Desam government modernised Kondaveeti Vagu with Rs 90 lakh funds but later the Congress government did not take care of the stream which troubled the locals and farmers of Amaravati Capital Region.
Mr Naidu indirectly indicated that the YSR Congress was unable to digest the enormous response of farmers about pooling 33,000 acres of farmlands for Amaravati establishment and hence they filed cases in the Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal and provoked the farmers. But the cultivators supported the TD government. He claimed that the farmers of Karamchedu got 50 bags per acre produce with the Pattiseema water and this increased his spirit to work more for the welfare of the public.
The Kondaveeti Vagu lift scheme would save Amaravati from marooning, Mr Naidu said and added that the waterway to Amaravati has been proposed on this stream for recreational purposes. He claimed that despite deficit Budget, the TD government is fulfilling all election promises, working for the development of AP and refuted allegations of the opposition parties. Minister for water resou-rces D. Umamaheswara Rao, minister for agriculture P. Pulla Rao, minister for social welfare R. Kishore Babu, Guntur collector Kantilal Dande, Guntur MP Galla Jayadev, Tadikonda legislator T. Sravan Kumar and farmers of Amaravati region participated in the programme.
