AP officials urge Centre to approve revised estimates

New Delhi: AP Irrigation officials are racing against time to get the revised estimates approved by the Centre for the Polavaram Project. A team led by Principal Secretary to the Water Resources Department, AP, Sashi Bhushan Kumar, held detailed discussions with the Central Water Commission officials here on Tuesday seeking to speed up the revised proposals of the State government.

S K Haldar, member of CWC was present at the meeting with other officials. The Centre has sent a 20-query list as late as Monday evening even as the officials were flying down to the capital seeking clarifications and explanations on several relief and rehabilitation issues and the increased cost estimates.

The AP team was told to prepare yet another explanatory note on all those and submit it to the CWC so that it could call for a Technical Advisory Committee meet to decide upon the report to be sent to the Water Resources Ministry which in turn would have to forward the presented revised estimates to the Union Finance Ministry.

AP team urged the CWC to keep a November 20 deadline for approving its revised estimates through the TAC, but it could be delayed by a couple of months more, it is learnt. 

Anything beyond January would be a major hurdle for the project as approval from the Finance Ministry would take five to six weeks. This means nothing moves as far as the project is concerned if it goes to January in the electoral heat.

Hence, the AP team is planning to address the queries raised by the CWC through a water-tight report and without giving any scope for delay in calling the TAC meet.

In view of the time-line complications, the Chief Minister of AP had already written to the Union government to release at least Rs 10,000 crore towards R & R as the total cost would anyway be over and above it including the amount released so far. However, the Centre has not responded to it so far.