BJP turns heat on TD govt over Polavaram project

Party launches 10-day yatra to protest against slow pace of work on the major irrigation dam

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh unit of the BJP, which has embarked on a 10-day Project Yatra from the Polavaram dam, has expressed its displeasure over the slow pace of work on the major irrigation project.

Despite the party trying to project it as a move to help the government, some leaders do agree that it is certainly a move that could cause some embarrassment to the TDP government.

The BJP delegation, led by MP K Haribabu, Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas and BJP leaders Som Veeraju and Vishnu Kumar Raju, who interacted with the evacuees, said the work on the six-decade-old project was moving at a snail’s pace.

While appreciating the government for taking up Pattiseema project and completed it in a record time, they said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu should evince similar interest and determination in completing the Polavaram project in the next four years.

This campaign by the State BJP leaders has assumed a greater political importance as the heat with regard to the delay in the Polavaram project is picking up. On the one hand, the TDP, which has been moving at a breakneck speed in regard to the Pattiseema project, has taken the stand that Pattiseema was a supplementary project for Polavaram as the main project would take some more time to be completed since the funds should come from the Centre.

On the other, the YSRCP which has been lashing out at the Naidu government on the Pattiseema project allege that it is meant to shelve the Polavaram project. To highlight this, YSRCP president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy has decided to launch Deeksha from September 23.

Talking to The Hans India, Haribabu said the main purpose of their Project Yatra was to see how the State government had been executing the project works and study the nature of the help they required from the Centre.

He said of late there had been a lot of criticism that the Centre was not extending help to the State. The BJP leaders said they were supposed to explain to the people the NDA government’s commitment to help the State.

Coming down heavily on the TDP government, Vishnu Kumar Raju said the State government had done nothing with regard to Polavaram during the past one-and-half-year. It had only been blaming the Centre. So far, only 20 per cent of work had been completed and the expenditure incurred so far was only Rs 2,000 crore, he said.

According to Haribabu, their yatra was a fact-finding mission. He said the Centre had shown great speed in merging the seven mandals under Polavaram with Andhra Pradesh with a sole aim of speeding up the project works and its completion by 2019.

Kamineni Srinivas said that during their interaction with the evacuees they had learnt that the R&R package was not yet fully given to them and there was still a lot of unhappiness among them. The BJP leaders were unhappy that the head works, powerhouse and spillway works had not yet begun.

These works would take at least four years to be completed, they added. He said the Centre would give funds for the project only from April 2014 as it was declared national project only at the time of bifurcation of the state.

The Union government owed funds to the tune of Rs 1,951 crore to AP towards the project expenditure since April 1 this year. Some money had been released and the State BJP would urge the Centre to give more funds, he said.

Reacting to the BJP leaders’ remarks, Minister for Irrigation Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said that no one should suspect the government’s commitment to complete the Polavaram project in the next four years.

“We hope that the Centre will help us by giving adequate funds,” he said, while brushing aside the criticism that the State government had not spent much money. “The fact is that the government has so far spent Rs 1,800 crore on the project.” he said.