BJP govt misleading people on Kadapa steel plant issue: TDP MP

NEW DELHI: TDP MP Jay Galla has accused the BJP government of misleading people on the issue of establishing a steel plant in Andhra Pradesh's Kadapa district and said his party would rake it up in Parliament.

Galla's remarks came a day after the Centre, citing the Steel Authority of India Limited's (SAIL) feasibility report, told the Supreme Court that it was not "financially viable" to construct a steel plant at Kadapa.To protest the Centre's denial, TDP MP CM Ramesh has threatened to go on a fast-unto-death in Kadapa district from June 24.

Galla said the BJP had been making contradictory statements at the Centre and in the state regarding the plant.
"It is (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and (BJP chief) Amit Shah's tactics of confusing people. They have been doing it for the last four years. 

The BJP's double standards have been exposed," he said here last evening.
"SAIL was asked to examine the feasibility of setting up a steel plant in Kadapa district according to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (APR) Act, 2014. In December 2014, it submitted that it was not feasible. Later, when the TDP resisted and demanded that the Centre fulfil the promise made in the Act, it constituted a task force on December 7, 2016, to re look into the issue," he said.

The Centre, citing the old 2014 SAIL report, filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, stating that a steel plant in Kadapa is not feasible. If it is genuinely interested in setting up the plant, it should have waited for the task force report, he added. 

"On one hand, the Centre is citing the outdated report in the Supreme Court. On the other, BJP state president Kanna Lakshmi Narayana says the Centre is considering setting up a steel plant in Kadapa. He also included the Kadapa steel plant as one of the items in his request letter to Prime Minister Modi on June 12. This shows nothing but their double standards," the TDP lawmaker alleged.

Galla said the TDP would confront the Modi government on the issue in the upcoming Parliament session.The proposed steel plant is emerging as another point of contention between the Centre and the TDP, which had in March pulled out of the NDA government over its refusal to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh.

The party has also been accusing the Narendra Modi government of not releasing enough funds for the Polavaram irrigation project and Amravati, the under-construction ultra-modern state capital.