Hyderabad, Reiterating that the voice of Opposition is being gagged in the Andhra Pradesh State Legislative Assembly, Leader of Opposition YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said TDP government is hurrying through Pattiseema at the cost of Polavaram project and the calling of tenders is laden with unprecedented irregularities to favour a few business houses.
“ The Opposition is denied mike at the slightest hint of reference to Chief Minister and TDP members are given chance to speak for protracted speeches and we are deprived the chance of putting our viewpoint on the floor of the House.
After many adjournment motions and notices under various forms the discussion on Pattiseema was taken up but the mike was denied as the charges of irregularities are being exposed,” he told reporters here on Tuesday.
While the very idea of Pattiseema project, which runs parallel to Polavaram objectives, is being questioned, Chandrababu Naidu has gone ahead with tailor-made pre-requisites to enable his favoured companies to qualify from a lot of many big players of infrastructure development companies.“He has allotted the tenders to his favoured companies though they have quoted 21.9 % excess while YSR has brought down the percentage from 10 to 5 way back in 2004. Now, Chandrababu Naidu has been justifying that 5 % excess is within the guidelines while remaining 16.9 % is a bonus given to the Company for completing in one year.
This is a distortion of the worst kind as the tender is called to complete the work in one year and anyone can imagine the amount of corruption involved in calling of the tenders right from getting qualified to the cushion being provided to the contractors that the bonus remains intact if the delay is from the Government side. Many apprehensions were reported about the time of completion of the project which may take more than two years.
The project itself puts the existence of Polavaram project at cross roads and in the Pattiseema project, not a single word is mentioned about water to Rayalseema. The very purpose of Polavarm is to take the flood waters of Godavari to Krishna delta and divert them to Rayalseema and this idea has been in circulation from 70s itself,” he said.
Chandrababu Naidu has been speaking about water to Rayalaseema, but in the past as Chief Minister for nine years his budgetary allocations to Galleru Nagari, Handri Neva and Velugonda have been meager while it was YSR and the subsequent governments that have allotted adequate funds and they are near completion. After TDP coming to power, the allocation level has come down and the three projects, which are close to completion, remain without any further movement.
Unless Pothireddypadu reservoir and the above three projects are completed where will the water drawn from Godavari be stored. The Chief Minister has no answer to this. It is only to benefit the contractors that Pattiseema is taken up, which will put the continuance of Polavaram in a quandary,” he said.
To push the Pattiseema project, the Chief Minister has been contending that Godavari will be in spate for 130 days in a year which is ridiculous. Floods to Godavari occur only for 60 days and 40 days for Krishna. Chandrababu Naidu has ignored the provisions made in the Tribunal about water sharing. Once Polavaram gets the CWC nod, Karnataka and Maharashtra will be entitled to draw 35 TMC of water. While there is a mention that we have the right to utilize the surplus water of Krishna River, there is no such suggestion regarding Godavari waters.
“It was when TDP was sharing power at Centre with Deve Gowda as Prime Minister that a Court ruling has come that the State should not go ahead with the new projects. YSR has cited the adequate provisions to establish that it is our right to make use of the surplus waters,’ he said.
TDP has been accusing us that we have ganged up with KCR, but it is Chandrababu Naidu who is doing what KCR wanted. TRS Chief has opposed Polavaram and Chandrababu Naidu is doing the same by hurrying through Pattiseema. The Assembly is being conducted in a way only to gag the Opposition and of the four days allotted for discussion on budget two days have passed and the discussion was not taken up. He also condemned the way in which Anganwadi workers were beaten up and arrested when the women came to city seeking hike in salaries.
For everything Opposition is blamed and bulldozed without giving any opportunity to voice the concerns on issues of public interest.
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