Jagan confident of getting central aid of Rs 17,000 crore for Polavaram by August end
Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has sounded confident that the Centre may release Rs 17,000 crore by the end of this month for implementation of the rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) package.
This would benefit the families displaced by the Polavaram irrigation project up to the 41.15 metres contour and to expedite the project works to help complete the whole project by June 2025. This would enable supply of water to the farmers for the kharif season, the Chief Minister said.
Jagan Mohan Reddy interacted with the flood-hit people from Kunavaram and VR Puram mandals of Alluri Sitarama Raju district at Kunavaram and with those from Kukunoor mandal of Eluru district, in separate sessions at Gommugudem village on Monday.
Addressing the flood-affected, the CM said, “I am confident the Central Cabinet would give its approval for release of '17,000 crore to AP by the end of this month. Our government has been pressing the Centre to release the money for quite some time now. I personally met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Central ministers several times in this connection. Once we get the amount, we will implement the R and R package.”
Jagan Mohan Reddy promised to release '5,200 crore immediately after receiving the Central funds, so as to implement the R and R package to the displaced families from 48 habitations in 32 villages. They were joined fresh to the existing list of PDFs after a Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) survey. This was to ensure that no affected family would be left out from getting the relief.
The Chief Minister said he would release '800 crore from the state government for implementation of R and R package to nearly 8,000 project-displaced families and to nearly 47,000 farmers who sacrificed their lands for the project by accepting just Rs 1.10 lakh or Rs 1.50 lakh per acre during the land acquisition process.
The land was acquired for the project during the term of his father and former chief minister, late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.
The CM had promised to enhance the land cost to Rs 5 lakh per acre. He also promised to release the balance amount of the relief package of Rs 3.2 lakh, as a sum of Rs 6.8 lakh was paid out of the total Rs 10 lakh per head.
Jagan Mohan Reddy slammed the previous Telugu Desam government for the promise it made to the Centre to take up execution of the Polavaram project at the 2013-2014 price level even as the cost of R and R package, land acquisition and the cost of construction of the project had, over the years, gone up tremendously.
He said the Centre was now asking the state government to explain the cost escalation in the project as the previous TD government gave an undertaking to Delhi to take up the project at the old price level.
Expressing concern over the delay in implementation of the R and R package, the CM said, “I am not constructing the Polavaram project. If I were taking it up, I should have given first preference to implementation of R and R package for the benefit of you all. Anyhow, our government is making all efforts to get the money from the Centre. Our government will also release funds to complete the project at 41.15 metre contour in the first phase.”
The Chief Minister lambasted the previous TD government for causing inordinate delay in the execution of the project by committing several mistakes in the construction of the spillway, the upper and lower coffer dams and the diaphragm wall without following the order of preference, resulting in scouring of parts of D-wall and also the coffer dam.
He said that this forced the present government to take up a study on the D-wall to identify the damage and finally take a decision to construct a new D-wall based on directions from all the stakeholder agencies like Central Water Commission.
