Son to complete Polavaram project started by father', asserts CM Jagan

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said on Thursday, “(My) father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy started the Polavaram project and his son (Jagan) will complete it without fail.” Some 48 gates of the dam have been completed as also the upper and lower cofferdams, he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy said, “The Telugu Desam government treated Polavaram as an ATM, shunning the construction of the project. Their government saved Rs 800 crore through the ‘reverse tendering’ process on Polavaram.”

The Chief Minister said the TD has no moral right to speak on Polavaram and he asserted that the project was synonymous with the name of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy.

Intervening in the discussion on Polavaram Project in the state Assembly on Thursday, the Chief Minister alleged that the TD rule did not follow the technical stipulations in the construction of the project. “This resulted in the washing away of the diaphragm wall in the floods of the past. Chandrababu has no locus standi to talk about the project, as he had never spoken about it between 1995 and 2014.”

Referring to speculations about his visit to Delhi, Mohan Jagan Reddy said the revised estimates of the project cost required to be approved by the central cabinet. “I met the Prime Minister and urged him to release an ad-hoc amount of Rs 15,000 crore to AP to go ahead with the project,” he said.

The Chief Minister said the designs were approved by the NHPC and the government was ready to pay compensation to the displaced persons as per the guidelines given by the Central Water Commission (CWC).

Dismissing the claims of the TD-friendly media on the project’s height as “unwarranted and false,” the CM said the state government was committed to complete the project with its original height of 45.7 metres. But, in the first phase, the height would be limited to 41.15 metres due to technical reasons related to the safety and security of the dam, he said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy came down heavily on a section of the media, saying their reports were aimed at projecting Chandrababu Naidu as the one who championed the project cause. “At the same time, they are also faulting the present government for the delay,” the CM said.

The CM displayed the designs of the project in the house to explain the “haphazard manner” followed in the construction of the project during the TD rule, saying, “Chandrababu didn’t follow the technical stipulations of constructing the spillway first.”

“The TD government first took up the works by using the project as its ATM and cared less for the project implementation,” the CM said.

The technical order (stipulation) was of “constructing the spillway first” across the 2400-metre breadth of the river, the upper cofferdam at the upper stream next, and then the lower cofferdam in the lower stream, prior to the construction of the diaphragm wall. This was not followed by the TD government, causing all the problems, the CM said.

Jagan Mohan Reddy said the former contractors of the project were relatives of Ramoji Rao and TD leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu. “Because the technical order was not followed, the Polavaram diaphragm wall and cofferdam were washed away in the floods, leading to formation of scour pits in the main dam area.”

The CM further claimed that even the incomplete spillway construction was faulty, as a 400 metre-gap was left out on either side.