Villages under the Pulichintala project have many monuments that are likely to go under water. Even with 11 tmcft storage, four of 13 villages where a majority of temples are located would submerge.
Efforts for rehabilitating 6,775 displaced families from 13 villages in Nalgonda district, which are set to submerge under Pulichintala multipurpose project are on, but the translocation of over 100 temples including 21 historical monuments has been delayed by the State government.
The officials in the Endowment and Archaeology Departments said that they had prepared detail project reports by estimating cost for shifting over 100 religious structures close to Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) centres, but the funds were not yet granted. The storage capacity of the multipurpose irrigation project is 45.77 tmcft, but the irrigation authorities would store only a little over 11 tmcft for this year, which would be increased to the total capacity of the project in next three years gradually.
Even with 11 tmcft storage, four of 13 villages where a majority of temples are located would submerge. The water is already touching Vellatur village that houses five historical temples, Anjaneya Swamy Temple, Siva Alayam, Chennakeshava Swamy temples, Papanasheshwara Swamy Temple, Ranganatha Swamy Temple and Mukthi Lingeshwara Swamy Temple. The officials in the Archaeology Department said that these monuments were having great historical importance because they were built between 15th century AD and 17th century AD.
Adlur and Chintriyal villages which are also set to submerge at ll tmcft storage, were also having four more historical monuments besides many religious structures.
The Department of Archaeology had prepared a report estimating that Rs. 2.70 crore is needed to shift these 21 historical temples to R&R Centres. Meanwhile, the Endowment Department has prepared another report according to which they need Rs. 22.39 crore to translocate the religious structures.
The district Collector had forwarded these files to CCLA (Chef Commissioner of Land Administration) seeking the release of funds required, but there was no move so far.
The villagers have appealed to the State government to shift all these temples very close to their new residences as they had no temple to worship. Telangana Mattimanusula Vedika founder, Venepally Panduranga Rao, appealed to government to protect the historical monuments by translocating them with immediate effect. He further said that the water level is expected to go up at Pulichinthala soon as Nagarjunsagar was receiving heavy inflows during the past couple of days.