(Image source from: Mirchi9.com)

YSRCP Demands Probe In AP’s Polavaram Project:- A high-level inquiry into alleged irregularities in the Polavaram Project has been demanded by the YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh. AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has been receiving kickbacks, claimed the party.

Party MP YV Subba Reddy, addressing to reporters in New Delhi said, “Close on the heels of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s remarks that Polavaram should be built as a corruption free project, Chandrababu Naidu has rushed to Nagpur with a proposal to change the contractor which shows the real intentions of the state.”

“The real idea behind it is to take the matter to legal corridors as the project cannot be completed within the promised deadline of 2018. If the contractor is changed, the earlier company owned by TDP MP would be blacklisted and there is every chance that he moves the court holding up the project indefinitely,” Reddy said.

(Video Source: NTV Telugu)

The state should also spell out the exact cost for the completion of the project, demanded Mr. Reddy and whether it would meet its 2018 deadline or not.

“During CM YSR’s term, the Polavaram works began and the estimated cost was pegged at Rs 16,000 crore. The government should categorically state how much the estimated cost has escalated and what is the final figure. The irregularities in the Polavaram project have been very glaring and the works are being done not by the contractor, but by sub-contractors. Naidu wants to revise the estimates and give the contract to his own people,” Reddy alleged.

In a span of three years, the project would be completed and would irrigate 2.91 lakh hectares, declared YSR in 2009. Having an assessed command area of 2.91 lakh hectares, the multi-purpose irrigation project has a power generation potential of 960 MW in its present form.

“We demand that the Centre order an inquiry into the irregularities in carrying out the national project, to find out the progress during the past 3.5 years, how much was spent, and the total cost of the project,” he added.

The YSRCP would meet the Union Minister for Water Resources and apprise him of the alleged irregularities, said Mr. Subba Reddy. The biggest component in the escalation of cost of the Polavaram project was the increase in the cost of Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) said Minister for Water Resources Devnineni Umamheswara Rao.

The allegations made by the YSRCP MP, refuted Mr. Rao. Stating that the YSRCP leaders were “experts in corruption,” Rao said, “Everything appears yellow for their jaundiced eyes.”  

SUPRAJA