Officials blame it on YSRCP

Vijayawada : Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has asked the officials of Irrigation department to submit a detailed report on the status of the Polavaram project and identify the officials responsible for the alleged irregularities occurred during the five-year rule of the previous YSRCP government.

Naidu, who has been holding review meetings with the officials of the department to understand where and how to re-start the works, has been getting shocking feedback from the officials who now claim that the wrong decisions by the previous government were responsible for the present state of Polavaram project which has become near defunct. He is reviewing the works to assess the cost involved in it and the measures that need to be taken to complete the works.

The officials are said to have told the Chief Minister that the sudden change of contractors by the previous YSRCP government, introducing reverse tendering, ignoring project headwork to divert water from a river into a canal or from a large canal into a smaller canal, non-implementation of Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) package had led to serious setback for the project which was to have been completed by the end of 2020 itself.

The officials are now coming forward with rough estimations that it would require at least Rs 3,000 crore to reconstruct the diaphragm wall and take up other repair works so that it can be restored to pre-2019 level. Naidu is learnt to have asked the officials that when they knew that so many irregularities were taking place why did they remain silent and who should be held responsible for the colossal damage to the national property.