VIJAYAWADA: Union Tribal Affairs Secretary Anil Kumar Jha has asked the state officials and the Polavaram Irrigation Project officials to ensure the completion of project works, particularly the rehabilitation and resettlement (R and R) works by according priority to quality within the financial limitations. He has also asked the officials to submit status reports on R and R and civil works periodically without fail.
The union secretary visited the project site on Wednesday and held a meeting with water resources, revenue, R and R, ITDA and other departments concerned. On the occasion, the secretary said that the works have to be done as per the guidelines of the Central Water Commission and other departments. Water could be stored to the full reservoir level as per the protocol in four phases. The State officials explained the plans to store 6.88 TMC at +1 m height in phase-1, 23.44 TMC at 25.72 m in phase-2, 115.4 TMC at 41.15m in phase-3 and 191.68 metres at 45.72 m in phase-4.
They explained the work plan for land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement for both the contours of the project — +45.72 m and +41.15 m. The officials said that out of the target of 1,67,338 acres, 1,12,555 acres of land have been acquired. Out of 20,978 project displaced families to be rehabilitated for +41.15 m contour, over 6,000 PDFs have been moved to R and R colonies.
Of the total, 13,938 PDFs opted for houses by the government and the others opted to build houses on their own with the compensation given by the government. The state government has been working with a target to release water for Kharif-2022.