‘He is not cooperating with Polavaram Project Authorities’

Rajya Sabha member, KVP Ramachandra Rao has demanded that A. P. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu immediately address a letter to the Government of India, clarifying that they it has to bear the entire cost of the Polavaram project and also intimate the same to the Court, filing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).

Speaking to reporters here on Sunday, Dr. Rao alleged that Mr. Naidu had hatched a plan to retain the execution of Polavaram with the State and had not been cooperating with the Polavaram Project Authorities (PPA) to take up the execution.

He said though the PPA has been asking for revised estimates and transfer of assets and liabilities since its first meeting in March,2015, the state had failed to do it. In fact, Mr. Naidu had been demanding PPA to treat as a normal project and grant 90% funds to it though the entire cost has to be borne by the Central Government as it was a national project. When PPA authorities refused to treat it as a normal project, Mr. Naidu put political pressure on the BJP and took execution of Polavaram into his hands, he alleged.

Dr. Rao also wrote an open letter, raising several questions pertaining to Polavaram project execution and asked Mr. Naidu why the revisited estimates were not submitted in one month as stated by him in March 2015.

He also questioned why Mr. Naidu had accepted the Central Government’s condition that it would bear only expenses on Polavaram as per estimates as on April 1, 2014. He raised 10 questions on the execution, funds needed for Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement works.