PTI-UNI Report - Rights AP Polavaram Dam

PTI-UNI report. Appeal by eminent personalities to Govt.of India to apply new Land law of 2013 to Polavaram dam displaced.

Eminent writers and personalities today urged the BJP-led NDA government at the centre and the Andhra Pradesh government to provide relief and rehabilitation to one lakh displaced people following the construction of Polavaram dam acoss River Godavari in the first phase. Press Council of India member K Amarnath, economist and senior journalist Dr Pentapati Pulla Rao, Centre for Media Studies, Delhi Chairman Dr N Bhasker Rao and Supreme Court Advocate Shravan Kumar, in a statement here, asserted that the governments had to apply the latest land law of 2013 to Polavaram Dam affected people. Polavaram dam, a Union Government project, located in residuary Andhra Pradesh, is now under the jurisdiction of the central Ministry of Water Resources.

A total of four lakh people, according to the statement, will be displaced by the time the Polavaram Dam is completed, constituting the largest displacement of people in India for any single Project. Thus far, the government has been fixing Relief and Rehabiliation under the terms of the 1894 Land Acquisition Act, which has now been replaced by the Land Acquisition Act of 2013. 'We appeal that the Union government apply its latest land laws to the entire process of land acquisition and displacement to Polavaram dam.The displaced and a project affected people have been agitating peacefully only for their due compensation,'' they said. The eminent writers also said the new Land Acquisition law clearly states under section 24(2) that the entire Land acquisition process has to be made anew, if people are still living on their land and properties.

Pullarao Pentapati - Central Government fanning disputes on River Godavari

It Is –unfortunate that a major issue has broken out between the new states of Andhra Pradesh and Telengana over the addition of 7 Mandals which will be affected by submersion by the gigantic Polavaram dam.   It is reflection of things is being handled.  Instead of bringing states together, one finds that rivers are dividing States and creating enduring animosity between them. This is not healthy for Indian democracy. When parliament passes a law, it should mean that there is wide consensus and that the law will be respected. As soon as the Andhra Pradesh Re=organization Bill was passed, we find that Telengana has said that it is going to  court  This is not a healthy  tradition since  every state will then go to court,  using the vast financial resources of a  state government.

Polavaram Dam is anti -people Project

Polavaram Dam across the River Godaveri in Andhra Pradesh, is perhaps the best example of the worst type of public waste. Such a dam was conceived nearly 80 years ago. The site for the longest dam in India was imagined or vaguely contemplated at Polavaram , keeping in view the level of science and technology of that time. Dams took decade to be built.

DR. Pentapati Pullarao’s contribution on the Issue of Polavaram Dam

On 5th March 2014, the National Human Rights Commission considered the issue of non- reclamation of the persons displaced because of the Polavaram Dam construction across river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, undertaking with the continuation of the earlier commission meeting dated on 23rd January 2014 for the same issue.