Amaravati, Dec 15 (IANS): Former Andhra Pradesh Irrigation Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Devineni Umamaheshwara Rao on Monday wondered how Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy could complete Polavaram Project by June 2022 on Monday.
He alleged that Reddy was not telling facts about the project.
"As per the government's note released during the Chief Minister's Monday visit to the dam, it was mentioned that less than 1 per cent work was completed at the project site since the YSRCP came to power. Now, the Chief Minister should explain to the public how his government would be able to complete the dam by June, 2022," he said.
Rao alleged that Reddy was going ahead with his plan to reduce the dam's height from 150 ft to 135 ft, and said that only under this plan it would be possible to complete the project going by the speed of work.
"Undoubtedly, the YSRCP regime had ulterior plans to avoid paying Rs 22,000 crore compensation under land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) that should be paid to the evacuees in seven mandals if the dam would have to be constructed to 150 ft height," alleged the TDP leader from Vijayawada.
Rao said Reddy was planning to take claim credit for completing the project, adopting methods which would greatly harm the farmers of the state.
"The government could escape by spending just Rs 3,330 crore for R&R package if the dam height was reduced to 135 ft. At the same time, the Polavaram project storage capacity would come down from 194 tmc to just 120 tmc," he said.
He also urged the Chief Minister to explain to farmers on all such matters and insisted that the government should allegedly not mislead the state any longer.
According to Rao, even the ministers and MLAs do not know much about the progress of Polavaram works and alleged that there was no transparency as the government was not making data available on the project website.
He alleged that the Chief Minister made Polavaram project completion as an endless story whereby the day of completion would never come.