VIJAYAWADA: Even as the outgoing government repeatedly claimed that the Centre had to reimburse the State an amount close to Rs 4,800 crore towards the Polavaram project, the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) clarified that a reimbursement of just about Rs 2,000 crore was due. A few days after Chief Minister-elect Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy said there was no need for the State government to continue with the execution of the national project, the authority reportedly clarified that its construction would be done by the Andhra Pradesh government.
PPA members held a review meeting with officials from the Water Resources department and Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd at the project site on Tuesday. Speaking to the media after the meeting, PPA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) RK Jain said: “According to the bills submitted to us, only Rs 2000 crore is pending with the Centre. A proposal for the same was earlier sent to the Ministry of Finance. However, the ministry has asked for the Revised Cost Estimates (RCE) and an audited statement for the expenditure done till March 31, 2014 (before the project was given the national status). The RCE is almost done and the audit is going on. Once they are submitted, the pending funds would be released.”
It maybe recalled that the audited statement for the expenditure done till March 31, 2014, is being done for a while now. While the records stated that close to Rs 5,400-odd crore was spent, the department was able to submit bills worth Rs 5,135 crore, resulting in a mismatch of about Rs 300 crore.
In the meeting, the PPA officials also discussed at length the pending Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R and R) for the affected families. The R and R has not progressed much since last year due to paucity of funds, which will be released only after the RCE gets final nod. The PPA officials said the RCE, which got clearance from the Technical Advisory Committee in February, is expected to get the final approval soon.