AP needs Nalgonda village for Pulichintala

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, June 24, 2014:  After, Polavaram, another irrigation project Pulichinthala, which is under construction and spread in Telangana’s Nalgonda district and AP’s Guntur district seems to be the new bone of contention between the two states.

Pulichinthala was taken up by the then state government in 2004 to  improve the irrigation to a high level of sustainability in the Krishna delta, and to complete it in 5years.   The project was in Guntur district on right side and in Nalgonda district on the left. The length of the dam is 1290mts with height of 37mts. The storage capacity of the reservoir is 45 tmc. The reservoir is to be kept full to facilitate early transplantation by June every year in Krishna delta.

The working group of Vizag based Forum for Action Research and Policy Analysis (FARPA) having retired chief irrigation engineers, have visited the project site recently and found that unless one of the villages coming under Nalgonda district is transferred to Andhra Pradesh like a few villages in Khammam were merged to AP for the completion of Polavaram, the AP government can’t go ahead with the construction of the Pulichintala project.

The relief and rehabilitation problems due to submergence of total 28 villages, 13 falling in  Nalgonda and 15 coming under Guntur totaling a population of 12904 and submergence area of 28446 acres was the main cause of delay in completion of the project as the process itself and the claims and counter claims of the project affected people have delayed this project, observed FARPA, chairman, Prof RV Rama Rao.

“The project got delayed due to frequent agitations from those villages that face submergence particularly in Nalgonda district. It is to be noted that the left side of the project is in Telanagana where as the right side is in Andhra Pradesh. The project site is to be approached only through Vajenepalli village of Nalgonda district in regard to the left bank works.  As Pulichintala project is exclusively for the purpose of stabilizing the Krishna delta in Andhra Pradesh, there should not be any interference from Telangana so as to ensure and obtain the desire levels of irrigation potential on sustainability in Krishna delta. In this context, Vajanepalli village is to be transferred to Andhra Pradesh,” added Prof Rao. 

The Pulichintala dam works were completed to a major extent. Four river sluice gates were erected and they are in operation to draw water from Pulichintala reservoir stored at crest level. There are some more minor items to be completed which are expected to be completed by August of this year.