Malkangiri: A boon for Andhra Pradesh, Polavaram project will be a bane for several villages in Motu area in Malkangiri district.
This under-construction multi-purpose irrigation project on the Godavari river in West Godavari district was started in 2004. The project has a hydroelectric plant. The main objective of the project is to generate hydroelectricity for industries and irrigating farmland.
With the AP government increasing the height of the dam, it will submerge many areas in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, forcing thousands of people to lose their ancestral lands and all sorts of natural resources.
Once the project is over, it is feared that many villages of Motu, Pushuguda, Malavaram and Tandabai panchayats under Kalimela block will get wiped out of the Malkangiri district’s map.
The Andhra government has already started the process to rehabilitate the affected people. It has served notices on many villages on its side bordering Malkangiri district to vacate the lands.
Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh and Odisha are increasingly concerned as the central government is yet to take any concrete step in this regard.
Even now, the project creates flood like situations in many villages in Motu tehsil. The backwater of the project flowing in Sileru and Saberi rivers creates floods every year.
When contacted, Motu tehsildar Sashank Mishra said the backwater from the project site enters into farm lands and villages every year, destroying acres of standing crops and damaging houses.
PNN