The Polavaram project is the lifeline of AP and it has been declared as a national project as per the AP Reorganization Act.
Now, Chandrababu Naidu says that he will complete Polavaram in four years’ time, but it is a very ambitious statement and he probably does not believe in it himself. Otherwise, he would not have opted for the Pattiseema Lift irrigation scheme.
Now, since Polavaram is a national project now, the Center promised to fund it and complete it. This would have made sense too, for AP is facing a financial deficit and Polavaram requires huge capital. But Chandrababu Naidu stepped in and said that all operational control needs to be vested with AP.
In other words, the Center will finance and AP will complete. Though not too impressed, the Center agreed to the proposal. But, there’s a problem here! Funds will be given by the Center only after Naidu sends the various receipts for the completed phases of the project.
Naidu was mistaken if he expected the Center to release the funds first so that he could go about the works.
Had the operational control been with the Center, the problem of funding would not have been there. But then, Naidu will not be able to give the contracts to his henchmen like Rayapati Samba Siva Rao, who is one of the contractors for Polavaram. In the best interests of the State, the operational control should also have been left to the Center.
Now where is Naidu going to come up with the funds for Polavaram when he is unable to pay salaries to his own staff? When will those works be completed and when are the receipts going to be sent to the Center? Sensing a political opportunity, the BJP has released only Rs 100 crore for Polavaram.
Now, a Telugu daily owing allegiance to Naidu has started a campaign saying the burden of financing Polavaram too has fallen on the shoulders of the State government and that the Center’s inadequate financial assistance will hold up the project. This is a clever misrepresentation of facts.
The State government had asked for operational control, it was not thrust upon it. And in all fairness, how can one expect the Center to release a ‘blanket cheque’ without anything to show for it?
The longer, Polavaram is held up, the longer will be the suffering of the people. And both the Central and State governments in their game of upmanship, would be equally guilty.
