Has the decision of the Union finance ministry to scale down the cost of Polavaram major irrigation project on Godavari river to 2013-14 estimates a well-laid out strategy by Bharatiya Janata Party?
The answer is yes, according to a talk doing round in the political circles. The BJP, which has no major developmental project is boast about in the Telugu states, is planning to exploit the uncertainty over Polavaram project to its advantage by next elections.
Apparently, the BJP is compelling the Jagan Mohan Reddy government to give up the construction of Polavaram project and hand over the same to the Centre, so that the latter would take up the responsibility to complete the same.
Since Jagan has already made it clear that it is impossible to complete the project at Rs 20,398 crore because the cost of rehabilitation and resettlement itself would be around Rs 30,000 crore, there is no choice for his government but to hand over the same back to the Centre, since it has been declared a national project.
He has nothing to lose, because he can always blame it on the previous Telugu Desam Party government for the delay as it had taken over the project execution from the Centre for benefitting the contractors.
Once the project goes into the hands of the Centre, it can enhance the project cost at a later date and complete the project by next elections, so that the BJP can claim credit for the same. It can always say what the TDP and YSRC could not do in 10 years, it had done in a couple of years.
Well, this might be a hypothetical situation, only if the Centre takes over the project. But if Jagan doesn’t want to give up the project and announces that the state itself will complete the project with whatever funds that is available with it, then, it will be a huge mileage for YSRC!
