Polavaram: CM promises to complete rehabilitation of affected people by 2026 end
Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has promised to complete implementation of the resettlement and rehabilitation plan for the Polavaram project-affected families by the end of 2026.
Vijayawada: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has promised to complete implementation of the resettlement and rehabilitation plan for the Polavaram project-affected families by the end of 2026.
In an interaction with the project-affected people during his visit to Polavaram site in Eluru district on Thursday, Naidu said the government would release water from the Polavaram project only after completion of the rehabilitation process.
“Our government, after coming to power in 2024, had remitted `829 crore into the accounts of the project-affected people. Earlier, such people were given little relief for displacement, he said, and added that after the TD government took power in 2014 and the NDA government in Delhi, “We had provided relief of `4,311 crore to the project- affected people.”
The CM alleged that the YSR Congress government failed to pay any attention to the issues of the affected people during its 2019-24 rule. Though YSRC leader Jagan Mohan Reddy had promised to pay relief worth `10 lakh each to the project-affected people, he failed to do so during his term in government, he said.
Naidu said, “If our government was elected to power in 2019, instead of the YSRC, we would have completed the project by 2020.” The delay in execution of the project resulted in cost escalation, he noted.
He also alleged that the “negligence” on the part of the previous government caused a major damage to the diaphragm wall. This led to huge waste of government funds. “I want every paisa of the government to be accounted for vis-à-vis project expenditure.”
Naidu also alleged that the YSR Congress government diverted the Polavaram project funds. Instead, had the project been completed as per earlier schedule, the affected people would have settled down. If the Polavaram Hydel project was also completed, it could have helped the government earn a revenue of `2,500 crore, he said.
The CM asserted that the alliance government was committed to completing the project. He vowed to complete the execution of R and R by eschewing the role of middlemen and fraudsters. “I want to provide sources of income to the project- affected people, so as to improve their living standards,” he said.
Thanking the tribals for their sacrifices for the project, the CM said they were being given an additional amount of `75,000 for construction of houses.
