‘Stop ravaging Polavaram Project’

PNS|Vijayawada

Andhra Pradesh Water Users Associations’ Federation (APWUAF) president Alla Venkata Gopala Krishna Rao has demanded that the State government should stop ravaging the State’s lifeline project Polavaram and take necessary steps to complete the project as early as possible. Though 72 per cent of the project works had been done during the previous TDP government’s regime, the YSRCP changed contractors in the name of reverse tendering. As a result, no work has been done during the three-and-a-half years of YSRCP rule, he said.

As part of the TDP call, ‘Idemi Kharma Rashtraniki’ was organised at the Polavaram Project in Eluru district on Thursday. APWUAF president Alla Venka Gopala Krishna Rao, Godavari Western Delta Project Committee former chairman and TDP State secretary Potturi Ramanjaneya Raju, Eastern Delta former chairman Ch Saibaba Raju, and Nagarjuna Sagar Project Left Canal Committee (Krishna district) former chairman Yanamaddi Pullaiah Chowdary and others went to participate in the programme.

The APWUAF leaders wanted to examine the Polavaram works done during the YSRCP rule, but the police prevented them by placing barricades. Later, the leaders staged a protest with placards saying, ‘Andhra Pradesh JeevaNadi Polavaram’.

Speaking on the occasion, APWUAF president Gopala Krishna Rao said that because of the YSRCP government’s inefficiency, the upper Coffer Dam was not completed. During the TDP regime, the estimated cost of the project was Rs.55,658 crore, but the present YSRCP government failed to obtain permission from the Ministry of Finance, he commented.

He demanded that the State government should stop ravaging the Polavaram Project and mount pressure on the Central government to get funds for Relief & Rehabilitation (R&R).