Polavaram: AP CM considers its construction historic

Vijayawada: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is planning to publicise extensively regarding the construction of Polavaram project as a historic event, as it took many years to reach the spillway construction stage.

He is even contemplating to make a documentary on Polavaram construction, intending to showcase the TD government’s achievement in the coming elections.

The Chief Minister instructed all the ministers and district collectors to visit Polavaram construction on Sundays and is also planning to request farmers of every district to visit the site, for which the government is likely to provide them transportation facility.

The concrete works will begin on Friday and the CM intends to make a big celebration, and orders have been issued to all ministers and officials in this regard.   The state government has planned to gather 1 lakh farmers, especially from the Godavari districts, for the event.

For this, RDOs of respective divisions are instructed to bring the farmers. The state government has even issued instructions  to bring farmers mandal-wise to show them Polavaram project by providing them transportation facility.
A senior IAS official said the main motto to publicise about the Polavaram project was obviously to get into public view for political mileage.

“The government is unsure about other ventures by 2019 elections. It is mainly concentrating on the prestigious project of Polavaram. Mr Naidu is trying to pass the message to the public that he is not only a tech-savvy CM, but is also concerned about farmers,” he said.

It is learnt that no minister from the Centre will come for the inauguration but Union ministers from the state will be present. Although the CM has been claiming that the government will complete it by 2018, experts argue it will take another decade in view of the precipitous escalation in cost.

Experts doubtful over further aid to project
While the Central and state governments are underscoring their commitment to complete the Polavaram project, after releasing the loan from Nabard at a mega event, experts and the Opposition parties are expressing doubts on project estimates.

Experts from the finance and irrigation  sectors have raised doubts over the funding and loaning process, as both the Centre and state governments did not  give any clarity over the complete loan or enhancement of financial assistance to the project. The YSR Comgress has already stated that Nabard sanctioned the loan, basing on old estimates without considering the escalated cost.

The state government, in the last year, had raised the project cost to Rs 36,000 crore, and later again to '40,200 crore, within a span of 11 months. The project was estimated to cost '16,000 crore when it was last revised in 2011. The current upward revision by '24,000 crore will be a huge burden for the cash-strapped state to bear, according to M.V.S. Nagireddy, irrigation expert and also president, YSRC Farmers wing.

“As per the Bifurcation Act, the Union government has to bear the responsibility of completing the project, as it is a national project, he observed and added that the Union government has to take up its complete responsibility.

“We suspect conspiracy of the state and a few political heads of the state in the escalation of the project,” he alleged. “Either the government should come up with detailed statistics or it has to place the details in public domain.”

However, irrigation expert K. Rajendra Prasad, a retired executive engineer, had a different observation. “The Centre has already promised that all the expenditure spent after 2014 will be reimbursed by it,” he said.