TDP govt neglecting people in 7 merged mandals: Congress

Vijayawada: PCC chief N Raghuveera Reddy on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking intervention of the Union government to do justice to the Polavaram Project displaced families.

Speaking to the media here, the PCC chief said a team of senior leaders of AP Congress visited Chintoor, V R Puram, Kunavaram, Etapaka, Kukunuru, Elerupadu and Burgampadu mandals of Polavaram Project submerging areas on August 10 and 11 and noticed deplorable conditions of the families living there.

He said the team consisted of senior leaders and former ministers Vatti Vasantha Kumar, Kanumuri Bapiraju, former MLC and AICC secretary Gidugu Rudraraju, West Godavari district Congress unit president Rafiullah Baig, AP Congress general secretary Jagan Gowtham, APCC farmers’ wing president Jatti Gurunadham and others.

Raghuveera Reddy said the team focussed on a deep study of the problems of the people of these mandals which were merged with Andhra Pradesh from Telangana after bifurcation.

People of these mandals have been displaced under the Polavaram Project. While the Polavaram Project is important for the development of the State, the welfare of the displaced people should be accorded top priority, he said.

But, to the utter shock and dismay of the visiting Congress leaders, the present TDP government was completely ignoring these people, the PCC chief lamented.

He further said they were shocked to see that there was no government in these seven mandals and no sign of government functioning in these mandals in the last four years.

The people living in the seven mandals expressed displeasure over the government’s neglect in the last four years, he said. The Polavaram has been declared as a national project and the execution of the works and implementation of the R & R Package are the sole responsibility of the Central government, Raghuveera pointed out.

Delegation of the project works to the State is a clear irresponsibility on the part of the Central government. This is also against the law of the land, he said. The Chief Minister who is holding review on Polavaram Project every Monday had no time to think of the problems of the people of these seven mandals, alleged Raghuveera Reddy.

He demanded equal compensation for all lands and implementation of welfare schemes to the people of seven mandals. He said the Congress party will be compelled to go for a mass agitations on behalf of displaced families under Polavaram project if the State and the Central governments neglect the care and protection of Polavaram project displaced families.