Minister admits to lapses in R&R package implementation

POLAVARAM: Major Irrigation Minister Ponnala Lakshmiah subjected the West Godavari district administration to scrutiny on implementation of the relief and relocation (R&R) package for the project affected persons of the Indira Sagar Project in the light of a host of complaints from the project victims and the ruling party leaders at a programme here on Sunday.
Admitting certain lapses, the minister asked district Collector A. Vani Prasad to look into a specific complaint that money under R&R package was given to the beneficiaries for house construction without allotting sites, leading to money misuse.
Earlier, District Cooperative Central Bank president Karatam Ram Babu and local MLA Tellam Bala Raju of the ruling Congress observed that the project victims from all the seven notified tribal villages failed to receive a better deal under R&R package yet even four years after laying of the foundation stone for the Indira Sagar. Mr. Balaraju said Chegondipalli and Singanapalli villages were notified for evacuation by the official machinery without any due survey.
As a result, the inhabitants from these villages were getting deprived of benefits under the R&R package.
Deadlock

An R&R colony for the project victims was built in a non-scheduled area near Polavaram, denying them the privileges which they were entitled to in the scheduled areas.
The Major Irrigation Minister encountered a deadlock over implementation of R&R which perceivably stalled the efforts of the administration for the evacuation of the project affected persons from the notified villages to pave the way for execution of dam works.
Boragam Venkatalakshmi, president of the Nirvasithula Porata Samithi from Devaragondi said the tribals were not willing to leave their ancestral villages until justice was done to them in implementing R&R.
Proposing to remove ‘gender discrimination' in R&R implementation, she highlighted the need to include all the women who crossed 18 into the list of beneficiaries.
The Collector, however, said the lack of preparedness by the project victims for eviction from their villages hindered the official attempts for developmental activities in the R&R colonies like electrification and drainage and internal roads.