Former MP Vundavalli Arun Kumar said here on Saturday the government had cleared the bills of the contractors though they did not complete a portion of work of the Polavaram project. He said he had documentary evidence for this misappropriation of funds and challenged the government to send officials to look into his allegation. He was ready to face any punishment if his allegations were proved wrong.
Addressing a media conference, he said at a recent meeting with Union Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari, the project contractor Transstroy and the Polavaram Project Authority had given presentations on the present situation separately during which they categorically said Polavaram would not be completed before 2020. The Transstroy further said the cofferdam work would be completed at the most by December 2020 or by March 2021. He also said the contractor had explained to the Minister in detail about how much work it had done, the expenditure incurred and the funds released.
“If we take the presentation into confidence it will be proved that bills were paid without doing work,” Mr. Vundavalli alleged. He recalled that Polavaram Project Authority CEO Amarjeet Singh had asked the State government through a letter to Chief Secretary how the project cost had escalated from ₹46,925 crore in May to ₹58,319 crore by November.
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Mr. Arun Kumar expressed his dismay over Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s observation that the statement in the Assembly on Polavaram and the White Paper were same. He said the CM had to come out with White Paper as his former supporter and Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan had also demanded for it.