Jagan ends tour, blasts Naidu

Leader of Opposition accuses CM of receiving kickbacks in Pattiseema project

Hyderabad: Leader of Opposition in Andhra Pradesh Assembly Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s wrapped up his three-day tour to assess the status of irrigation projects by mounting a blistering attack against the government with regard to Pattiseema project bids while neglecting other pending projects in the state.

Jagan kicked off his tour from Rajahmundry by visiting Doweleshwaram barrage. He levelled a series of allegations against Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu for rushing through the Pattiseema project though other parties were strongly opposing it. He charged Naidu with pocketing kickbacks to the tune of Rs 300 crore in Pattiseema project finalisation.On the second day, he visited Prakasam barrage at Vijayawada. He expressed doubts over the storage capacity of the barrage, which can hold up only 3tmcft. He said storing flood water and sending it later down up to Rayalaseema is the idea behind Polavaram project.

He said the project has a storage capacity of 194 TMC of water and would divert 80 TMC water from right bank to south and 24 TMC to Visakhapatnam from left canal. Jagan criticised Chandrababu for meagre allocation of funds to the Pulichintala project.On third day, Jagan entered Rayalaseema, where he had spelt out the reasons for his opposition to Pattiseema, though the government and Telugu Desam Party are harping on the benefits the project would provide to the region. He explained about the budgetary allocation to Galeru Nagari, Handri Neeva and Veligonda projects during the previous tenure of the TDP government.

Jagan concluded his tour at Veligonda project. “We stand to lose with the Pattiseema as there are many lacunas in it. Polavaram is the project which brings Godavari flood water to Krishna delta and to Rayalaseema and Chandrababu Naidu’s love for Pattiseema will badly affect the farmers as the Polavaram project will be put in cold storage,” he said. He also asked the officials as to why the water to Gandikota project was so scanty. They said that the works were not being taken up at the required pace and the project could get only one TMC of water this year.

By G Balakrishna