AP blanks out Sonia, Singh, YSR in dam ads

Hyderabad: Photographs of AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were blanked out from a function organised by the state government to mark the inauguration of the multipurpose Pulichintala dam on Saturday.

The advertisement to announce the function in the newspapers, did not feature the pictures of Dr Singh or Sonia Gandhi. It only had photographs of Kiran Kumar Reddy and irrigation ministers P. Sudarshan Reddy and T.G. Venkatesh.

Generally, advertisements by Congress-run governments announcing major schemes feature the pictures of both the Central leaders, apart from the Chief Minister and the ministers concerned. It was the same even at the Pulichintala project site, and at a public meeting that the CM addressed at Vijayawada.

At Pulichintala, the government had put up several flexi-boards. But none of them featured the PM or the Congress chief. The picture of the then Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy was also missing.

However, sensing that the issue could become controversial, the pictures of the three leaders were hastily put up on the dais.

There was no such luck at the public meeting that the CM addressed at Vijayawada.

In another snub, the meeting venue was named after Kakani Venkata Ratnam, the leader of the Jai Andhra movement.

AP CM dedicates Pulichintala  to nation

Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Saturday unveiled a pylon and inaugurated the Dr K.L. Rao Sagar Pulichintala project constructed across the Krishna and dedicated it to the nation at Pulichinta village.

He switched on a button to lift the 16th crest gate and release water. Kiran Kumar Reddy, along with ministers Sudarsan Reddy, Dokka Manikya Vara Prasad, Kanna Lakshminarayana, Kasu Venkata Krishna Reddy, K.P. Saradhi and Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar walked on the project bridge.

The capacity of the dam is 45.77 tmc ft and it will stabilise the irrigation needs of 13.5 lakh acres of the Krishna delta in five districts. APGenco plans to generate 120 MW of power from four power units.

The dam was first conceived 102 years ago. The then chief minister N.T. Rama Rao had  laid the foundation for the construction of the project on November 18, 1988; Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy took it up as the first project under Jalayagnam programme at an estimated cost of '680 crore in 2008. Due to subsequent delays, the project cost shot up to '1,803.97 crore as per the revised estimates in 2009.