AP state BJP wants centre to take up Polavaram project

The message from the state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the YS Jaganmohan Reddy government is loud and clear. It wants the YSRCP government to speed up construction of the Polavaram multi-purpose project on the river Godavari, or it will urge the centre to take over.

Polavaram is a national project built under a tripartite structure, the Centre, the state and Polavaram authority. While the centre is the funding agency, the state is the executioner of the project under the supervision of the authority.

A team consisting of state president Kanna Lakshminarayana and state in-charge Sunil V Deodhar visited the project site for to review it after Jagan took over the reins from Nara Chandrababu Naidu. The team will discuss the project issue with Union Minister for Jal Sakthi, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

“The TDP government used the project to promote itself and delayed its execution, the present government on the other hand, opted for reverse tendering on the pretext of large scale corruption by Naidu,” Kanna said in Kakinada.

However, the BJP leaders demanded that Jagan come out with substantial proof that Naidu resorted to corruption.

BJP’s changing stance

The BJP team has expressed its unhappiness over the tardy progress of the project in the past four months. After coming to power, the Jagan government has stopped the works and terminated the contract with the Navayuga group.

It then went for reverse tendering and ended up okaying tenders filed by single contractor MEIL (Megha Engineering Infrastructure Limited) group. “We will meet the union minister and urge him to take over the project,” Kanna said.

The BJP's changing stance on the issue was evident with IT raids on MEIL headquarters in Hyderabad on Thursday and the CBI’s strong counter against Jagan’s quid-pro-quo cases. Earlier the BJP had joined the YSRCP in making a long list of allegations against Naidu, even accusing him of using the Polavaram project as an ATM.

On the other hand, Jaganmohan Reddy tried to set things right with New Delhi by meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to invite him to attend the Rythu Bharosa programme.

The YSRCP also supported the abrogation of Article 370 Bill in the parliament.

However, the state unit of BJP keen to upend things and take full credit of the completion of the Polavaram project.