Centre, Chandrababu lock horns over irrigation project

Naidu wanted to replace the contractors of the Polavaram project with another firm to ensure its completion before 2019 elections.

Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari has rejected the proposal of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to change the contractor firm of the multipurpose irrigation project across River Godavari, Polavaram. Naidu wanted to replace the contractors, Transstroy India, with another firm for speedy completion of the project ahead of the 2019 elections.

Gadkari also objected to the costs of the project that have spiralled from Rs 15,500 crore to around Rs 52,000 crore, mainly due to delay in implementing the relief and rehabilitation (R&R) of the displaced people. Gadkari declined to reimburse the R&R component, which has increased from Rs 2,934 crore in 2008 to Rs 33,858 crore now. The Polavaram project, benefiting Andhra Pradesh, has been made a national project as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, which stipulates that the Centre should fund its entire cost of construction. As per a special package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last July, the Centrw had authorised the state government to construct the project and had agreed to reimburse the money.

Now that the Union Water Resources Ministry, which is the nodal agency for the project at the Centre, and the TDP government in AP are at loggerheads over the termination of contractors, assessment of R&R component, the matter will be heard by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and finally go to the PM for his last word, as per sources in AP irrigation department who spoke to this newspaper.

Gadkari turned down the request on the ground that any change of contractors would lead to escalation in the project cost and further delays as the aggrieved party might approach courts and seek compensation. Interestingly, the Transstroy India belongs to the ruling Telugu Desam Party’s MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao.

Sambasiva Rao, a Congress MP between 2009 and 2014, bagged this prestigious contract for Transstroty from the Congress government led by N. Kiran Kumar Reddy in 2012, for an amount of Rs 7,500 crore, to build the spillway and cement works of the dam.

Since 2016 October, Naidu made it a point to visit the dam site in East Godavari district every Monday by helicopter and review the progress of works. However, he was disappointed over the slow pace of the work by Transstroy which has defaulted huge sums of money to its sub-contractors which include L&T among five other firms. Transstroy also has several legal and financial disputes with its sub-lessees.

When Naidu in July this year took stock of the situation, he found that it was just impossible to finish the project before 2019 elections, thus belying his promise to people. Opposition YSR Congress leader Jagan has already been attacking Naidu, saying he cannot complete Polavaram as well as Amaravati on time, due to his “inefficiency” and “corrupt practices”.

Naidu instructed Transstroy to speed up works and finish the project by the end of March 2019, but the firm threw off its hands saying that it needed extra funds to sort out certain legal problems.

On 25 October, Gadkari held a meeting in New Delhi and told the Andhra Pradesh Irrigation Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao that the Centre would do whatever it can to complete the project by 2019, but it was the duty of the state government to get things done by the contractors. CM Naidu has, however, expressed optimism that the FM and the PM would come to his rescue as Polavaram was a joint poll plank of the TDP-BJP in the last elections. The exit of Telugu Deasam Party’s Telangana unit working president, A. Revanth Reddy, who held secret talks with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi two weeks ago in New Delhi, may benefit the BJP in the state, which is looking forward to expanding its base.

After Revanth Reddy made up his mind to join the Congress, the remaining leaders of the TDP are now keen on aligning with the BJP. Reddy, who was arrested in the cash for vote case during the legislative council elections two years ago, has caused commotion in the TDP circles by calling on Rahul Gandhi in Delhi on 9 October. He told the Congress leaders, including AICC secretary R.C. Kuntia, who is in charge of Telangana, that a large number of TDP leaders would be coming with him.

Revanth Reddy was supposed to join the Congress after a couple of weeks at a grand rally addressed by Rahul Gandhi, post the latter’s appointment as Congress president sometime in November. Meanwhile, Revanth has been meeting senior Telangana Congress leaders, who are not too happy at the news of his joining the Congress, and trying to persuade them that he would not be a threat to them.

In Telangana, the TDP as of now has only Revanth and two other MLAs, R. Krishnaiah and S. Venkata Veeraiah. Revanth Reddy, a bitter opponent of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, announced after his meeting with Rahul Gandhi that the TDP joining hands with the Congress was the only way to defeat the TRS government in Telangana.

However, Telangana TDP president L. Ramana and former minister Motkupalli Narsimhulu have accused Revanth of compromising himself for personal interest. TDP’s national president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has stripped Revanth of all posts but has allowed him to continue as an MLA. Naidu, who held a meeting with party leaders at Lake View Guest House in the city, in which Revanth too was present, agreed to a proposal by the senior leaders that they should align with the BJP in the next polls. Senior TDP leader Narsimhulu said that the party cannot afford to align with the Congress. “Our party was founded by late NTR only to unseat the Congress from power in 1983; we cannot go back on our core ideology. If necessary, we will join hands with the TRS but not the Congress,” he said. The alleged rise in violence against Dalits, rampant inward migration and the “development divide” between the lower and upper regions of the state are some of the key issues in poll- bound Himachal Pradesh, political observers have said. Elections to the 68-member Himachal Assembly will be held on 9 November.

Holding the Virbhadra Singh-led Congress government responsible for most of the problems in the state, Ramesh Dhawala, a former minister and Dalit face of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Himachal Pradesh, told The Sunday Guardian, “The Congress government has been ignorant about the problems faced by Dalits in Himachal.”

“The incumbent Congress government has failed to address the issues related to atrocities against Dalits,” Dhawala added.

However, denying the allegations of the BJP leader, Karan Singh Chauhan, Congress legislator from Himachal Pradesh, said: “The charges of the opposition party against the government are baseless. I have no knowledge of incidents of any violence against Dalits in Himachal. On the contrary, the condition of Dalits has improved a lot in the state during the Congress regime.”

“For the Congress, all the party workers are dedicated Ahead of his much hyped six-month long state wide padayatra, slated to begin from 6 November, YSR Congress president and Andhra Pradesh opposition leader Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy left for London on Saturday morning to see his elder daughter Y.S. Harsha, who studies in the London School of Economics. He will return on Tuesday.

Jagan, according to sources close to him, thinks of his daughter as a lucky mascot