Taking a cue from the petition of senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP K V P Ramachandra Rao in the Hyderabad high court, the YSR Congress party has decided to bring pressure on the Centre to take over the Polavaram multi-purpose project.
The obvious intention of the YSRC is to project that the Telugu Desam Party government has forcibly taken the Polavaram project from the Centre only for the sake of kickbacks, but failed to complete the project on time, thereby cheating the people.
So, it wants to show that the project could be completed only if the Centre takes back the project from the state.
That would help not only the BJP to get the required political mileage, but also the YSRC which would be joining hands with the BJP in the next elections.
YSRC MLA and Public Accounts Committee chairman Buggana Rajendranath Reddy alleged that the Naidu government had been creating confusion over Polavaram project with mala fide intentions.
He demanded that the TDP take an all-party delegation to Delhi seeking the Centre to take over the project.
He said there was no reason as to why the Polavaram project should not be given to the Centre as was mentioned in the State Reorganisation Act and also the Union Cabinet had resolved to bear the cost of the project way back 2014 even before the state was divided.
“Instead of pursuing with the Centre to clear the project, Naidu had waited for two precious full years and never uttered a word on it,” Reddy said.
He wondered why the state had taken over the project from Centre and why it was going back again.
The project cost has gone up from Rs 16,000 crore in 2014 to Rs 58,000 crore and who would be paying the difference but for the people of the state, thereby increasing the per capita debt.
