Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will visit the Polavaram project on Monday. He will reach the project site at 11.10 a.m. and will see the sluice gates, cofferdam and other structures from the view point along with Ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs.
Later, he will participate in a review meeting with the officials of the district and the Water Resources Department on the progress of the multi-purpose national project.
Polavaram MLA Tellam Balaraju, West Godavari Collector Kartikeya Misra, Superintendent of Police Rahul Dev Sharma, Polavaram project Superintending Engineer Narasimha Murthy and other officials reviewed the arrangements for the Chief Minister’s tour on Sunday.
Mr. Balaraju had an interaction with the project-affected tribal people in the Agency area and assured them that compensation would be paid to all the eligible families.
“All arrangements have been made for the Chief Minister’s programme scheduled on Monday. Officials of the Revenue, Irrigation, K.R. Puram Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Panchayat Raj, Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited and other wings will attend the review meeting,” said Mr. Kartikeya Misra, who visited the project site.
Mr. Rahul Dev Sharma, along with Polavaram Deputy Superintendent of Police K. Latha Kumari, ASPs and other officials reviewed the security arrangements for the Chief Minister’s programme.
“Additional forces have been deployed in the Agency area. Vehicle checks are being done on all the roads leading to Polavaram,” the SP told The Hindu.
“Special party police have been positioned at the project site and on both sides of the river in East and West Godavari districts as a precautionary measure,” Mr. Rahul Dev Sharma said.
Air of expectation
Meanwhile, the visit, the first by Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy after fulfilling his poll promise of ₹10 lakh compensation for the affected families within the +41 contour of the project, has drawn much attention.
In July, the State government granted ₹550 crore package for more than 17,000 displaced families, ensuring them a ₹10 lakh package each, including ₹6.5 lakh entitled as per the land acquisition guidelines.
The visit and a review of the ongoing Resettlement and Rehabilitation exercise are expected to lead to finalisation of an action plan to tackle the floods in the river and the impact of the closure of cofferdam simultaneously.
From East Godavari, Joint Collector G. Lakshmisha, ITDA-Chintoor Project Officer A. Venkataramana, and ITDA-Rampachodavaram PO Praveen Adithya would participate in the review meeting.
