TDP flays move to spend Rs 254 crore on YSR statue

Amaravati: Former minister and TDP leader Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao on Wednesday accused the YSRCP government of harming the farmers by reducing the Polavaram dam height on the one hand while indulging in self-aggrandisement by proposing to spend Rs 254 crore on a mammoth YSR statue complex at the project site.

Uma Maheswara Rao deplored that the Jagan Mohan Reddy regime did not care to provide minimum relief to the victims in the recent Godavari floods but it was now going ahead to construct a 125-ft tall YSR statue with utter disregard for the sentiments of farmers in the Godavari delta. The ruling party was becoming a laughing stock and making a mockery of the state people by delaying and stalling the Polavaram works on one side while moving fast to speed up the YSR statue works on the other.

Addressing a press conference at party state office at Mangalagiri, the TDP leader pointed out that the visionary and experienced leadership of N Chandrababu Naidu helped in completing the Polavaram works up to 71 per cent. Under his dynamic leadership, Polavaram came to be acknowledged as the single most, speedily executed of all the ongoing 16 national projects in the country.

The former irrigation minister termed it as unfortunate that during his visit to the dam on Tuesday, minister Anil Kumar Yadav only made cheap political comments against the TDP instead of answering farmers' and the media's questions on the proposal to reduce the dam height from 150 ft to 135 ft.

The minister was not clarifying his government's plan to betray over 1 lakh tribal and non-tribal families who would be displaced due to the project. What is more, the government ignored the original dam but is now focusing on spending Rs 98.87 crore on YSR statue, Rs 76 crore on buildings complex, Rs 36.16 crore on external development and Rs 8 crore for landscaping.