The State government is going to have a tough time ahead on the Polavaram project with the YSR Congress (YSRC) deciding to send its MPs, MLCs and MLAs on a ‘bus yatra’ to the dam site on December 7.
Water Resources Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao is going to inspect the progress of the work on Monday.
According to a press release, their visit is intended to exert pressure on the TDP government to expose the alleged conspiracy behind its attempts to withdraw from the project.
The party said an estimated 70% of the left and right canal work was completed during Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s reign and the present government was trying to put the project on the back-burner.
The YSRC accused the TDP of taking huge kickbacks from the contractors and said an action plan for launching a massive stir would be drawn up soon.
The Polavaram visit assumes significance against the backdrop of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s terse statement in the Assembly that he was willing to hand over the project to the Centre if it doubted the State’s inability to meet the deadline and was not satisfied with responses to the queries being raised by the Union Ministry of Water Resources.
On their part, the A.P. BJP leaders are criticising the State for allegedly not being transparent in its conduct vis-à-vis the project.
Bharatiya Janata Mahila Morcha National In-charge Daggubati Purandeswari had in a letter to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari raised cost and relief and rehabilitation as issues that cast dark shadows to be addressed by the Centre.
