VIJAYAWADA: Former minister Ambati Rambabu lambasted Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for making baseless allegations against former Chief Ministers YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and YS Rajasekhar Reddy pertaining to the Polavaram Irrigation Project.
Speaking to the mediapersons in Guntur on Wednesday, he said Jagan strove a lot to secure Rs 12,157 crore from the Centre for the completion of the first phase of Polavaram project, which involves water storage at 41.15 metres.
Reminding that this approval was given after several rounds of discussions with the Prime Minister and the then Minister for Jal Shakti by Jagan, he slammed Naidu for trying to take credit for it.
The former Water Resources minister attributed the setbacks and financial loss incurred by the Polavaram project to Naidu’s hasty and ill-conceived decisions, and it was clearly mentioned in an international expert committee’s report.
He reminded that it was Naidu, who agreed to outdated rates for the project in 2016, which ultimately benefited contractors rather than the people.
The former minister also questioned why Naidu accepted Rs 15,668 crore from the Centre, despite the project being valued at Rs 20,398 crore, of which the State had already spent Rs 4,730.71 crore.
On the abolition of reverse tendering system, Ambati said Jagan introduced it for transparency, and saved Rs 850 crore in the Polavaram project alone. He described the new development as opening doors for corruption again.