Chandrababu is only interested in kickbacks

Polavaram: A team of YSRCP MLAs, MLCs and MPs visited Polavaram project on Thursday to review the work in progress and submit its report to party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. YSRCP leaders - Ongole MP YV Subba Reddy, Nellore MP M Rajamohan Reddy, MP Varaprasada Rao, MLC Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose, several MLAs, MLCs and MPs visited the project as part of a bus yatra from party office in Vijayawada. They inspected the spillway works. They found that no work is currently going on at the Polavaram project site.

The party leaders said that the AP Reorganisation Act has clearly stated that Polavaram was a national project and that is would be executed by the Central Government. However, Chandrababu took up the responsibility of constructing the project for the sake of kickbacks. The exorbitant escalation of production cost was meant to garner kickbacks, the YSRCP senior leader Botsa Satyanarayana pointed out.

He said that the Central Government has categorically stated that it will release the funds as per the 2014 estimates only, while TDP presumed that it would get the funds as per the revised estimates. As a result, there is a yawning gap between the two, the YSRCP leaders said. The Centre's estimates is Rs 16,000 crores while AP Government has pegged the expenditure at Rs 58,319 crores.

Chandrababu Naidu, who is in South Korea, spoke only about the financials and not about the progress of the project. This showed that he is interested in kickbacks alone and not in completing the project, YV Subba Reddy said. He said during his nine-year rule, Chandrababu Naidu could not complete even a single irrigation project. It is YSR, who worked hard, secured permissions and completed several irrigation projects. Chandrababu Naidu could not complete even the Telugu Ganga project, stated by NTR and it was YSR who had completed it in the interest of Rayalaseema, he said.