Andhra Pradesh government has asked the Centre to amend the composition of the Polavaram Project Authority and remove all the Telangana officials in the body.
The justification for such a demand is that consequent to the Central ordinance transferring seven mandals to Andhra Pradesh from Telangana, the entire Polavaram project is located in Andhra Pradesh State. Hence, there is no need for Telangana officials in the Authority. A letter to this effect was sent to the Centre last week, sources confirmed. Andhra Pradesh is also pointing out that after the transfer of seven mandals, the relief and rehabilitation of displaced villagers would also be its responsibility. The PPA was notified without consulting it, A.P. officials are arguing. The PPA consists of Chief Secretaries, Secretaries of irrigation and Commissioners of Land acquisition and Rehabilitation of both the States. An additional secretary level officer of GoI would be the Chief Executive Officer of the PPA. Now Andhra Pradesh wants the Telangana officers to be removed from the authority and appoint a secretary cadre officer of A.P. as the CEO.
The A.P. government further argued that with the ordinance amending the section 3 of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, the submergence area of the Polavaram project was in A.P. Therefore the inclusion of the Chief Secretary of Telangana and other officials as members was not required to facilitate construction of the project. The government also sought amendments to the effect that only A.P. employees be deployed on deputation to the PPA. The provision for distribution of power generated from the Polavaram project between the two successor States should also be amended as all the power from the Polavaram project ought to flow to AP.
However, there is stiff opposition from Telangana government to the Central ordinance and the Telangna Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is planning to take an all party delegation to Delhi after the Telangana Assembly and council passed resolution opposing the ordinance.
