The State Government which is keen to establish Sumitomo thermal power plant in Polaki mandal of Srikakulam District is striving hard to convince locals by organizing series of meetings to asses the public opinion and their mood over the project.
After stiff resistance in the fields a few days ago, the officials are conducting meetings in Polaki MRO’s office to explain the ‘benefits’ of the project.
Senior officials of AP GENCO including Satyanarayana Murthy, Rajkumar and others have been meeting people of various villages including Onipadu and Gavarapeta for the last few days seeking their permission for taking up 'preliminary survey' in the villages.
According to them, the government identified that only Polaki lands were suitable for the construction of the 4,000 MW project as the remaining six places including Palasa, Vajrapukotturu and Ponduru were rejected due to various reasons. High level team of Sumitomo Corporation has also reportedly favoured Polaki due to its proximity to proposed Bhavanapadu project.
With the directive coming from the State Government, the officials are leaving no stone unturned to get the nod from the people for the thermal project. “As many as 23 projects with an estimated capaicty of 26,000 mega watts were located in Nellore district. So, there will not be any problem even if another project is established near Santabommali where East Coast Energy Private Limited is constructing its project.
We hope people of Polaki mandal will be convinced with our meetings,” said a senior official.
Meanwhile, the locals including Pagoti Apparao, A.Ramarao, and Bairagi Naidu who met the officials made it clear they would not allow even preliminary survey in the mandal. CITU State Secretary P.Madhu, Human Rights Forum General Secretary VS Krishna and others have already extended their cooperation and asked them to inform if government moved forward for setting up the project in Polaki itself.
