The Congress party is going to launch the Polavaram ‘maha padayatra’ on January 7 from Dowleswaram barrage and it will be inaugurated by Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy.
Addressing the media here on Saturday, APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy said the three-day padayatra would conclude on January 10 at the Polavaram dam site, where a “mass satyagraha” would be staged. Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge would address a public meeting on that day. Farmers from all the 13 districts of the State would participate, he said.
Mr. Reddy said the padayatra was aimed at mounting pressure on State and Central governments to complete the multi-purpose irrigation project by 2018 as announced in Parliament by the former Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, in February 2010.
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He alleged that the State and Central governments were vying with each other to claim credit for the project and not showing interest in completing it.
“It was originally named as Indira Sagar (Polavaram) Project. The Union and State governments have removed the words ‘Indira Sagar’. But no progress has been made after 2014,” Mr. Reddy alleged. The State government had increased the project estimates from ₹16,000 crore to ₹58,000 crore in the over three years, he said.
“The governments are trying to defer the date of completion from 2018 to 2019, and 2020. There is no transparency in expenditure,,” he said.
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Dig at Naidu
Mr. Raghuveera Reddy said Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was dancing to the Centre’s tune, and compromised on the interests of the State even as Telangana was constructing projects across the Godavari upstream without obtaining permission.
Later, Mr. Raghuveera Reddy discussed the arrangements for the padayatra with leaders M.M. Pallam Raju, Kanumuri Bapiraju, Gidugu Rudraraju, and party State secretary S.N. Raja.