VIJAYAWADA: Congress Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao on Thursday requested Governor ESL Narasimhan to order an inquiry to identify the persons responsible for the State government passing the burden of Polavaram project cost escalation on the State exchequer and direct the State government to publish a white paper on the national project.
He urged the Governor to make the government disclose the conditions accepted while taking up the execution of the project and the resultant financial burden on the State. He also urged the Governor to direct the State government to immediately file a counter affidavit in the PIL filed by him in the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
The Congress leader, in his lengthy representation, blamed TDP and BJP for the delay in the project. Though the AP Reorganisation Act mandated that the Union government will fund, execute and complete Polavaram, but it had renounced its responsibility stating that the State wants to execute it on its own and had put several conditions limiting their financial liability, resulting in a huge financial burden on the State, he said.
He said during his recent visit to Polavaram project, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has claimed that he could not complete the project as per schedule due to non-release of funds by the Centre.
Citing the minutes of the UPA Cabinet meeting on May 1, 2014, KVP said it was decided to consider the expenditure already incurred on the project by the State government as the State’s share and all further expenses on the project will be borne by the Centre.
According to him, after the Polavaram Project Authority was constituted, several meetings with the State government were conducted and the request was made for the transfer of all assets and liabilities of the project. But, State government did not cooperate and deliberately delayed the revised cost estimates and started payments to contractors from State funds to complicate the process of transfer of assets to the PPA.
Subsequently following the recommendations of NITI Aayog, the execution of the project was entrusted to the State government. Meanwhile, the State government issued orders enhancing the cost of Polavaram Head Works from Rs 4,054 crore to Rs 5,535.41 crore based on 2015-16 standard schedule of rates, though the Centre made it clear that they will provide the cost of the project as on May 1, 2014. Similarly, cost of left and right canals were revised. It created doubts in the minds of people, as to who will bear the cost escalation of the project.
According to him, the Centre restricted its liability on the land acquisition burden only to the extent that the land already identified for the project and yet to be acquired but included in the assessment cost approved in 2011. In other words, land acquisition cost for the additional land after 2011 will not be borne by the Centre. “The State government was aware of it even before the announcement of a special package, but they never disclosed it to public,” he explained.
Both PPA and State government were asked to prepare RCE at two price levels (2013-14 and 2017-18) only to fix the financial liability of the Centre over the project at the 2013-14 price level.
According to him, the advisory committee on February 11, 2019, has approved RCE for an amount of Rs 55,548.87 crore at the 2017-18 price level. The technical advisory committee noted that RCE at 2013-14 price level is `27,081.62 crore.