india

Updated: Oct 11, 2019 21:03 IST

The Bharatiya Janata Party in Andhra Pradesh is likely to appeal to the Centre to directly supervise the construction of the Polavaram irrigation project on the Godavari river in the wake of inordinate delay in executing the project by the present YSR Congress government in the state.

On Friday, a delegation of the state BJP led by Kanna Lakshminarayana visited the Polavaram project site and the submergence areas in West Godavari district to find out how far the project had progressed.

“While the previous TDP government led by N Chandrababu Naidu had failed to complete the project as per the schedule and sought to gain political mileage by converting it into a tourist spot, the present Jagan Mohan Reddy government has not taken up any work so far,” Lakshminarayana told reporters.

He accused the YSRC government of wasting precious time by terminating the previous contractor and going in for reverse tendering for completing the remaining work on Polavaram, on the pretext that the previous government had indulged in corruption.

“It would have been better had Jagan gone in for reverse tendering after proving the allegations. He has failed to unearth the scandal in Polavaram even after four months,” the BJP leader said.

The BJP delegation will meet Union water resources minister Gajendra Singh Shekawat in New Delhi on October 13 and submit a report on the status of the Polavaram project.

The team is likely to ask the minister to see that the Centre directly executes the project, since it has already been declared a national project with 100 per cent central funding or the project work is executed under the direct supervision of the ministry, a BJP leader familiar with the development said.

Meanwhile, the Polavaram Project Authority which has been overseeing the progress of work on the project, is going to meet in Hyderabad on October 16 to review the situation. It will seek an action plan from the state government on the resumption of project work in the wake of receding of floods in Godavari.