ELURU/HYDERABAD: A day after Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s statement that the Andhra Pradesh government had agreed to his proposal to give some of the villages that were earlier merged with the reorganised State back to TS, the AP government on Wednesday made it clear that it had not accepted any such proposal.
“We have no idea about such proposal. In fact, all these villages were merged with AP from the TS so as to clear the way for the construction of Polavaram project. If some of these villages are given back to TS, how could the project be taken up?” a top official wondered.
The merger of 211 villages of Chintoor, Kunavaram, Bhadrachalam (excluding Bhadrachalam revenue village), Vara Ramachandra Puram, Bhurgampadu, Kukunoor and Velairpadu mandals with AP, post-bifurcation after making amendments to the AP Reorganisation Act, was done to facilitate construction of the Polavaram Irrigation Project. “If any of these villages are demerged from AP, the very construction of Polavaram project will not go forward. Hence, it is impossible to give back any village to the TS,” he added.
The Bhadrachalam revenue mandal, Kunavaram, Chinturu and VR Puram were merged with East Godavari district whereas Velairpadu and Kukunuru mandals of Khammam district were merged with West Godavari district.
When asked about the comments made by Chandrasekhar Rao, West Godavari district collector Katamaneni Bhaskar told Express over phone, “There is no such proposal pending with us. We can’t give any village back to TS as we have to implement the R&R package in all these villages which will be submerged in the Polavaram project.”
“I can only speak about villages that are in West Godavari district.
There is no such proposal to give back any village from our district. I need all villages to implement the R&R package to construct Polavaram project,” he further stated.
On Tuesday, KCR said in a public meeting that his AP counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu had accepted to give some villages that were earlier merged with AP back to Telangana.