Precarious TD-BJP ties to affect policies, projects

VIJAYAWADA: TD is concerned about getting support of the BJP for key projects in the state under the current unpleasant scenario arising with the Union Budget allocation. The status of these projects is seen to be the deciding factor for the fate of TD in the upcoming polls.

Even Polavaram, the state’s prestigious project, is a cause of concern for the TD as it has received only Rs 4,329 crore so far while the total cost estimate of the project is Rs 58,319.06 crore.

The Union Cabinet had green-signalled NABARD to allocate only Rs 23,814 crore for the project. Even the final cost estimate of the project is to be approved.

The Union government should release around Rs 50,000 crore in two years to complete the Polavaram project by 2019. To get these funds released, it should be aligned with NABARD. The cost estimate of the project should be finalised and approved by the Centre thsat could then be assigned with NABARD. So far, NABARD got approval for Rs 23,814 crore by presenting it in the Five-year Plan until 2020.

The Centre is yet to clarify on fund allocation. After March 2014, funds released by the Centre for Polavaram project stood at Rs 4,329.06 crore.  Till now, the state government had submitted bills for Rs 2,803.73 crore.

For the whole project, including land acqui-sition, rehabilitation and resettlement (LARR), the cost estimate at 2010-11 price level was just Rs 2,434.02 crore. With latest amendments to the Land Acquisition Bill, cost estimation for LARR component  increased to Rs 33,858.45 crore. Till now,  however, not a single rupee has been released by the Centre for this component.

So far, 53 per cent of Polavaram project works has been completed and 91 per cent of Right Main Canal (RMC) works, 60 per cent of Left Main Canal (LMC) work has been completed. On the other hand, 39 per cent of head works (HW) in the project and 66 per cent diaphragm work have been completed.

On Monday, while interacting with officials, as part of the 50th virtual review of Polavaram project, the Chief Minister directed them to accelerate the work.
The state government is yet to ink an MoU with Navayuga constructions to complete the spillway and spill channel work as the main contractor Transtroy failed to do so. The state government is yet to make an MoU under Section 60C which was approved for Navayuga Constructions.

A senior MP shared that in the current scenario, with a confusion over the TD-BJP alliance, and a gap between the Union and state governments, it will be tough to speed up the project work and complete it by 2019 as every work will be monitored keenly by Central Agencies for quality control. Polavaram Project Authority will act tough.

Water resources minister Devineni Umama-heswara Rao expressed hope of completing the project on time and said that there are no major glitches in the project.

In addition to Polavaram, the other important issue for TD is to resolve the delimitation issue. Though it is mentioned in the Reorganisation Act, the situation does not seem to be in favour. Union Home Department had sought Election Commission’s opinion on how the reservation of SC/ST will be implemented if delimitation is done. Confusion prevails over the existance of the parameter of considering either 2001 census, or 2011 census for  delimitation. The Supreme Court dismissed the petitions of three states seeking to increase the number of SC/ST reserved constituencies considering 2011 census.  

The Supreme Court clearly ruled that there will not be delimitation until 2026 in any state. So if this is to happen in AP, it will need a constitutional amendment which is highly impossible. But the TD will face tough situations politically if the matter ruptures.

In addition to Polavaram and delimitation, there are many other important issues which are to be resolved. But under the current situations, we can only wait and watch.

Education sector faces the neglect

The state government has expressed distress as the Union Government has not been supporting it as expected in Central aided educational institutions like IIM, IIT, IIIT, IISER, NIT, Tribal Uni-varsity, Central University, Agri University, AIIMS, NIDM, Petro-leum University, IIFT, IIP, CIPET, NID, National Institute of Refinery and Institute of Coronary Skills.

The state is yet to receive Rs 7,702 crore from the Centre. Till now, it has received only Rs 626.49 crore in four years of which Rs 26 crore was deducted as dues.

In the current budget, the Union government allocated only Rs 287 crore for the 10 national educational institutions in the state. For the completion of works in all educational institutions, the state government needs Rs 7,702 crore but only 4.1 per cent of the budget has been allocated for the fiscal year 2018-2019.

As part of its responsibility, the state government had allocated 2,900 acres of land worth Rs 11,600 crore to these 10 national educational institutions. But the Centre is not exhibiting the enthusiasm shown by the state.

On the other side, there is no clarity on funds allocation to AIIMS, Mangalagiri, while across the nation, AIIMS was allocated Rs 3,018 crore.

Towards a full-fledged IIT-Tirupati campus, Rs 700 crore is required as per the cost estimates, but so far only Rs 108 crore has been released by the Union government in four years. Recently, Rs 50 crore was released towards this. Out of the total '108 crore that was received, the dues billed is around Rs 62 crore. But till now, no permanent structure has been constructed and no infrastructure has been provided.

The case of other educational institutions is the same. The allocations for various institutions have been: Rs 10 crore for Central University, Rs 10 crore for Tribal University, Rs 42 crore for IIM, '54 crore for NIT, Rs 49 crore for IISER, Rs 30 crore for IIIT, '32 crore for IIPE, '5 crore for IIFT and Rs 5 crore for Indian Institute of Packaging.

HRD minister Ganta Srinivas Rao expressed his distress saying that the Central institutions in the state required '4,500 crore. “We have sent the proposal to the Union government. It is sad to see that they allocated only '277 crore. The Union government forgot the promises made to Andhra Pradesh,” the minister added.