Naidu responsible for Polavaram delay 

Guntur, Jan 7: YSRCP Guntur district president and former Water Resources Minister Ambati Rambabu strongly accused Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu of spreading falsehoods once again on the Polavaram Project and trying to escape responsibility for the prolonged delay of the project.
Addressing the media at the YSRCP office in Guntur, Rambabu said Naidu has made it a habit to avoid answering direct questions raised by the YSR Congress Party and instead resort to counter-attacks based on lies. He stated that the truth behind Polavaram’s delay lies entirely in the wrong decisions taken during Naidu’s tenure.
Rambabu said the diaphragm wall was constructed without completing the cofferdam, which is a clear violation of established protocol. He alleged that despite warnings from the Central Water Commission and international experts that closing the cofferdam without proper river diversion would endanger upstream villages, the Naidu government went ahead irresponsibly. As a result, floods washed away the diaphragm wall, he said, adding that blaming contractors later was an attempt to hide this grave mistake.
He questioned how Naidu could justify constructing a diaphragm wall without a completed cofferdam and noted that even global experts have recently confirmed this lapse. Rambabu said the credit for river diversion, spillway completion, and construction of upper and lower cofferdams belongs solely to YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government.
The former minister also accused Naidu of deliberately reducing Polavaram to a barrage-level project by agreeing to lower water storage levels, thereby harming irrigation, drinking water supply, and North Andhra development. He asserted that Naidu was repeatedly compromising Andhra Pradesh’s interests, including Rayalaseema lift irrigation, to appease Telangana leadership.
Rambabu said YSRCP is ready for an open debate at any time and will prove that Naidu alone is responsible for the Polavaram delay, not YSRCP.