Hyderabad: The Telugu Desam (TD) has been vociferously denying that the Amaravati capital region is a flood-prone area. It has stated that AP minister Botsa Satyanarayana’s claim that the area would go under water if there is a flow of 11,000 cusecs in the Krishna river was merely false propaganda to shift the capital to another area.
But, when it was in power, the TD government repeatedly said on several fora that the area was flood-prone.
TD MP Galla Jayadev, in the previous Lok Sabha, had said that 13,500 acres in Amaravati were flood-prone. The TD government, in its affidavit filed before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), had said the same thing. The Singapore consortium of companies, which prepared the Amaravati master plan, had also reiterated the flood risk to the capital area.
In a special mention in the Lok Sabha, Mr Jayadev had said, “There is a need to protect Amaravati from the vagaries of nature and one of the important furies of nature in Amaravati is flooding. To protect Amaravati, there is a need to have a flood control system”
He said, “As per master plan of the capital, 13,500 acres, covering 54 kilometres of area, is prone to floods. To address this problem, the AP government has decided to take up flood control works under flood control management system in these areas with an estimated cost of Rs 1,096 crore.”
The Singapore consortium in its master plan for Amaravati said, “The Kondaveeti vagu catchment draining towards the Krishna river has a total area of 453 km. The Kondaveeti vagu originates from the Kondaveedu hill range and joins the Krishna river upstream of the existing Prakasam barrage, together with its own tributaries.”
The consortium noted, “The Kondaveeti vagu flows across the capital city and causes inundation over about 13,500 acres of land every year during the monsoon season.”
In its master plan, the consortium said, “The inundation of low-lying areas within the capital city development area will usually last for five to seven days. The area of about 10,600 acres is within the planning area of the capital city, the Kondaveeti vagu flood issue is a critical issue.”
In a third admission that Amaravati could be flooded, the then TD government, in an affidavit filed before the NGT, said, “The Kondaveeti vagu is a seasonal steam, which is dry for most part of the year, (but) it temporarily inundates for few days in a year.”
Despite these three submissions, the TD leaders are now alleging that the YSRC is conspiring to shift the capital by spreading propaganda that the Amaravati area is prone to floods.
