The Centre, which is very cooperative with other States, is being very stringent with Andhra Pradesh when it came to the Polavaram project, Minister Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said on Saturday.
More than six months had passed since the Polavaram second detailed project report (DPR II) and revised estimate had been sent to the Centre for clearance, he told the media here.
The irrigation projects of other States were being approved though all rules were being flouted, but all kinds of queries were being raised when it came to the Polavaram project that was cleared in a Central Act passed by Parliament.
Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari came twice to the dam site and promised that the DPR II and the Revised Estimate would be approved immediately but the “PMO seems to be delaying matters”, Mr. Rao charged.
Despite repeated requests to convene a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting to approve the DPR II it was not happening but the Centre was quick to convene a TAC to approve an irrigation project of a neighbouring State, he pointed out.
Teams in Delhi
Teams of Andhra Pradesh engineers and officials were “permanently” stationed in New Delhi to respond immediately to queries raised by either the Ministry of Water Resources or the Central Water Commission (CWC) to no avail. Days were running into weeks and weeks into months.
The State Water Resources Department sent 350 kg documents to the CWC as response to its queries, the Minister said.
The government after bifurcation began with a budget deficit of ₹16,000 crore and a loan of about ₹1 lakh crore. Still, it allocated funds for project which it considered very important for the State. The Centre had yet to pay ₹3,342 crore that the State had spent. Because of this, the State was unable to pay Relief and Rehabilitation to the displaced families, he said.
