By: JR Janumpalli
The Union Cabinet has approved Telangana State bill with some amendments. Amongst the amendments, ceding the villages in Bhadrachalam division to Seemandhra is a very important one and has a very far reaching consequence. The villages are to be ceded to facilitate the construction of Polavaram, a very controversial project with a potential to create perhaps the biggest disaster to environment and human settlements in the country.
The maximum water level of this project is 150 feet. Because of this Project 299 villages are getting submerged. 276 from A.P.;20 from Odisha and Chattisgadh. Out of 276, 207 mostly, tribal villages are from Khammam district in Telangana. A large area of productive agricultural and forest land is getting submerged. Presently the project is pending in Supreme Court.
Photo: Polavaram project site
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Along with Odisha, Chhattisgarh state governments and several NGOs from Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh are contesting the project in courts.There is no proper estimation on the extent of submergence and agreement on the submergence of land and villages among the three states. There is a great deal of ambiguity and uncertainty in the Central water commission, environmental and forest clearances. There is objection from the submerging villages.Even before the Project was fully cleared by union government and the design finalized, the spill way, canals are constructed with huge financial outlay and work is going on.
The Project in its present design is said to be a potential disaster for Seemandhra, Telangana, Chattisgarh and Odisha. It is not a feasible scheme if it correctly goes through all the requisite clearances and court cases. Its cost-benefit analysis and technical feasibility is in question. As against the projection of irrigating 2, 91,000 ha. of new land, it is estimated that it will only irrigate 80,937 ha. It submerges 276 villages and displaces about 4 lakh people after adjusting population growth in the last decade. Most of them are tribals.The design is said to be faulty. Godavari is prone to very high floods and it needs to be designed for probable maximum flood (PMF) of 140 000 cumecs.
The National Institute of Hydrology found that if the dam bursts, the peak flood will be of 198,200 cumecs. This means the project’s EIA is flawed and downplays the threat of flood. “Based on recent rainfall trends and flood history, a peak flood of 250,000 cumecs is a reality. This will wash away the dam,” says T Hanumantha Rao, former chief engineer with Andhra government. Though CWC changed the maximum flood estimate from 102,000 cumecs to 142,000 for the dam’s spillway design, Andhra Pradesh has not changed the back water level estimates based on the new PMF.The estimates will further increase the submergence. If the dam breaches because of frequent high floods in Godavari, the damage to Seemandhra downstream would be devastating. The tribals in the submergence villages are very backward. With their fragile socio economic conditions adapted to the forest environment, they are very vulnerable to many vagaries in their settlement in other environs.
The central government has said earlier, that Bhadrachalam division will be retained with Telangana. But, now changed its tack and is proposing to cede all the submerging villages to Seemandhra except Bhadrachalam town. This is done just for the political expediency of getting the support of BJP to get through the T-Bill in the Parliament. The BJP is being manipulated by the Naidu duo — Chandra Babu and Venkaiah, the political brokers for Seemandhra. At this stage, it is a very un-statesman like and unethical decision by Congress Party.It was a bad decision in the beginning itself to declare such a pointless project as a national Project, in the irrigation rich districts of coastal Andhra while Rayalaseema and Telangana districts are suffering for want of irrigation. Their own Seemandhra engineers had found fault with the design and suggested alternate designs to get more or less same area irrigated, but to no avail. Seemandhras are adamant on this Project and are manipulating UPA government for, diverting Godavari water to Krishna basin to help Krishna delta and Rayalaseema and their politico-corporate interests at the expense of Telangana. Coastal Andhra has got every right to use the Godavari water allotted to it.But not in this cadaverous manner with a potentially dangerous design. It is going to be at the expense of a few lakhs of innocent tribals, devastating their delicate life. Ironically, there is a threat to Seemandhra area also, but, they don’t care. They are blinded by their numerical political primacy and their self-centered business interests.
Here, the tribals of Bhadrachalam division are being used as sacrificial goats to Seemandhra for its acceptance of Telangana State Bill, by Congress and BJP parties. Those villages might have been in Andhra region before 1959 and they may be technically right to claim those villages in the event of division, but, the purpose for which they are proposed to be annexed is reprehensible. Those villages were with Telangana for the last 55 years and now also totally and unequivocally want to be with Telangana. At this stage Telangana people forsaking them to Seemandhra for their ruin is utterly unthinkable and downright immoral. Getting Telangana State with such disloyalty will not augur well for the new state. Telangana people cannot do that under any circumstances.
Either a government or any political party has any right to play with the livelihood of lakhs of tribal people upsetting their age-old settlements in their forest environs just for the political expediency or corporate political interests. That too for an uncertain and potentially disastrous Project like Polavaram. Now this issue does not become a question of Telangana and Seemandhra in the backdrop of Telangana Bill.it becomes the question of survival of tribal population who are guaranteed special protection under Indian Constitution. It does not become the problem of Telangana people or TRS and TJAC. It becomes the problem of all Indians who are concerned with the livelihood and welfare of tribal population in the country.Let us bring this to the notice of all NGOs, Tribal Organizations, tribal leaders of the nation and other states to stop this abomination and protect the tribals of Bhadrachalam division in Khammam district of Telangana.