Reinstate Telangana Villages Merged Into AP: Kavitha

Telangana Jagruthi President and BRS MLC K Kavitha today demanded that five villages, which were merged into Andhra Pradesh due to the Polavaram project backwaters, be returned to Telangana.

Speaking as the chief guest at a round table conference organized by Telangana Jagruthi on the Polavaram submergence issue, she expressed concern over the plight of villagers from Purushothapatnam, Gundala, Ettapaka, Kannayagudem and Pichukalapaka - villages that were merged into Andhra Pradesh as part of the Polavaram project.

She said that the residents of these villages were suffering severe hardships, and alleged that both States had neglected their condition.

She criticised the Union government for issuing an ordinance in 2014 - during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's very first Cabinet meeting - to merge seven mandals from Telangana into Andhra Pradesh, calling it unconstitutional and unjust, and urged Modi to address the issue during the upcoming inter-State meeting on June 25, where the Chief Ministers of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Chhattisgarh were expected to discuss the Pragati Agenda.

She also called on Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to press the Union government, and warn it that legal recourse would be pursued if necessary.

Kavitha stressed that the future of these villages could be safeguarded only if the height of the embankments was raised; otherwise, even a single heavy flood could result in complete submergence.

She added that the project posed a permanent threat to the Bhadrachalam region, particularly due to the increase in spillway capacity to 50 lakh cusecs, which caused significant backwater issues and endangered the famous Bhadrachalam temple.

She suggested that the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments jointly conduct a comprehensive survey of the Polavaram submergence impact.

She also raised concerns about the thousand acres of temple endowment land belonging to Lord Rama located in Purushothapatnam - now part of Andhra Pradesh - while the deity remained in Telangana.

"There is no one to look after the deity's land, and it is being encroached upon," she lamented, and called on the Andhra Pradesh government to protect the temple land.

Recalling past developments, Kavitha said that Telangana Jagruthi had approached the Supreme Court during the united Andhra Pradesh era in an attempt to halt the Polavaram project.

The BRS MLC also accused Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu of using "backdoor politics" to annex the seven mandals, and criticised the Congress for remaining silent in Parliament when the issue was raised. "While BRS MPs voiced strong opposition in Parliament, Congress members chose to ignore the injustice," she said.