Chandrababu planning to loot AP afresh through Sujala Sravanthi

Hyderabad: Senior YSR Congress party leader, Botsa Satyanarayana flayed Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Nara Chandrababu Naidu for planning to loot the state afresh through Sujala Sravanthi irrigation project of North Andhra. Addressing media persons here on Thursday, Botsa said that Chandrababu who did not think of the project during four and a half years of his rule, suddenly woke up to it 3 months before the elections and hurriedly laid the foundation stone.

The senior YSRCP leader reminded the media that it was the late Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy who laid the foundation stone for the project back on February 21, 2009, with the intention of ensuring drinking water supply as well as catering to the irrigation needs of the three Northern Andhra districts.

Botsa posed a direct query aimed at Chandrababu Naidu and Devineni Umamaheswara Rao--"what is the use of laying a foundation stone for an irrigation project when elections are three months away?" Similar deceptive methods were used in Thotapalli project, he said. Botsa said that Chandrababu was trying to mobilise funds for the elections through Sujala Sravanthi project, by giving contractors mobilisation advance.

The senior YSRCP reminded media persons that irrigation minister, Devineni Umamaheswara Rao had released a white paper on irrigation sector in which it was said that Rs. 17,000 crores were required to complete the remaining projects in AP. 14 out of 54 had already been completed by then.

However, Botsa said, recently Devineni admitted that Rs. 52,000 Crore had been spent so far and the projects still remained incomplete. While Polavaram was excluded in this list of projects, the estimated costs had gone up three-fold since 2014, the senior YSRCP leader pointed out. This hiking up of estimated costs is nothing but loot of public money, Botsa added.