Conduct survey on impact of Polavaram backwaters: Central Water Commission

HYDERABAD: The Central Water Commission (CWC) on Monday directed the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) and Andhra Pradesh government to conduct a survey on the impact of backwaters of Polavaram irrigation project in Telangana. The CWC directed the PPA to convene a meeting of AP and TS on April 10. 

At a meeting in Delhi on Polavaram backwaters issue, the officials from Telangana expressed displeasure over the inordinate delay in AP conducting the survey on the impact of backwaters of Polavaram in Telangana. Despite the CWC’s earlier directions, the AP was not coming forward to conduct the survey, the TS officials said.

The TS officials wanted the CWC to recognise the submergence in Telangana when water stored at Polavaram at full reservoir level. They also wanted a joint survey including the damage caused by July 2022 floods.  

The TS officials intended to conduct a fresh public hearing and wanted steps to protect Bhadrachalam temple and Manugur water plant. “The joint survey should be conducted by any agency under the supervision of  Polavaram Project Authority (PPA),” officials demanded. The TS officials also demanded that AP should not store water in the project, till the joint survey was conducted and the apprehensions of Telangana were cleared.   The officials also pointed that the meeting held in January 25 in Delhi by CWC clearly directed the AP to take up the joint survey.