News is that the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to use local and Indian-based contractors to complete works on Polavaram and Ethipotala projects. So far so good. On one hand, the farmers’ organizations are crying hoarse that the projects are unnecessary.
Meanwhile, the AP government’s big plan is that though the contracts will be given to foreign companies, the actual work will be sub-contracted to local companies which anyways.
So, a leading daily has already carried a story saying that all this is being done for the benefit of people who are either part of government or their kith and kin.
Well, the big question here is that if local companies are capable of handling the Rs 1300 crore Ethipotala project, then aren’t the local infrastructure companies capable of handling the capital development projects? Then, why is Babu forever talking of Singapore, Japan and making a huge issue out of it?
