VIJAYAWADA: Opposition Leader and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday said that the previous TDP government ensured that Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) has been made part of the irrigation component of the Polavaram Irrigation Project funded by the Centre.
Naidu also found fault with the contents of the letter written by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy with a request to approve the second Revised Cost Estimate recommended by the Central Water Commission and other agencies for Rs 55,656.87 crore as per 2017-18 price level, stating that the letter was written without studying the subject.
Addressing the media online, Naidu said the Centre has agreed to accord National Project status to Polavaram project as Andhra Pradesh was deprived of a capital and the project was envisaged to provide irrigation water to 7.20 lakh acres, drinking water to 29 lakh people and generate 960 mw power. “As the execution of the project was getting delayed, we have taken up Pattiseema project and inter-linked five rivers,’’ Naidu asserted. Recalling the sequence of events, Naidu said the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) in its 90th meeting approved Rs 10,151 crore as per 2005-06 price level (PL) and subsequently, in the 105th TAC meeting, the same was approved for Rs 16,010 crore as per 2010-11 PL and finally in the 141th TAC meeting held on February 11, 2019, it was approved for Rs 55,548.87 crore.
“The escalation of R&R package has led to 77 per cent jump in the cost of the project,’’ Naidu said and added that the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on the floor of the Rajya Sabha on February 20, 2014, made it amply clear that the R&R cost has escalated due to the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and that the Centre will bear the cost of the same.
Naidu also said that it was because of the efforts of the TDP that the Union Cabinet on May 27, 2014, even before the elected MPs sworn in, decided to merge the seven mandals to AP to avoid any inter-state disputes. On the same day, Modi made it clear that the cost incurred by the State before 2014 will be considered as the State component and the cost on the project from then onwards will be borne by the Centre.
Naidu said keeping in view the State interests, the State government had agreed to incur the entire cost of the hydel power project. Responding as to what the Union ministers representing the TDP in the then union ministry did when the LARR was not included in the funding of the project by the Centre, as alleged by the ruling YSRC, Naidu said that in the Union Cabinet meeting held on March 15, 2017, it was clearly mentioned that the Centre will bear 100 per cent irrigation component of the project and this include headworks, canals, R&R and others.
In response to a RTI query, the ministry of Jal Shakti on April 2, 2020 made it clear that the Centre will provide 100 per cent of the remaining cost of the irrigation component, which includes land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement of the project for the period starting from April 1, 2014,’ Naidu added.
“The government should study the issue properly before writing letters,’’ Naidu advised and claimed that the TDP government completed nearly 70 per cent of the project works.
