VIJAYAWADA: Former Water Resources Development minister and YSRC leader Ambati Rambabu on Friday blamed Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for the damage caused to Polavaram Irrigation Project. “It is Naidu’s wrong decisions that resulted in the present state of the Polavaram project,’’ he said, in a counter to the release of white paper on Polavaram by the State government.
Ambati said strategic errors in regard to the Polavaram project had taken place during the previous TDP regime. “Why did the then TDP government agree to construct the project when it was the Centre which was supposed to execute it? Why did Naidu agree to 2013-14 rates for the project construction in 2016?’’ he questioned.
Ambati also asked whether it was not the fault of the then government to construct the cofferdam before the spillway, spill channel and diversion of the river. “Naidu is now trying to blame former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for all the lapses that took place in the project execution,” he said.
Ambati went on to add that it was former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who brought all the necessary clearances for Polavaram project.
He claimed that no lapses or irregularities had taken place in Polavaram or in any other irrigation project during the previous YSRC regime, and they had taken extreme care in execution of the projects. “There was not a minor technical glitch in execution of the project by us,’’ he asserted.