Expressing serious concern that all the irrigation projects in the State have been stalled, former chief minister and TDP president, Nara Chandrababu Naidu, on Thursday asked how the Jagan Mohan Reddy Government can be expected to construct projects which are unable to manage even the canals.
“Chief Minister, Jagan Mohan Reddy, has done great injustice to the irrigation sector and all the projects have come to a grinding halt due to his inefficiency,” remarked Naidu while talking to media at the party headquarters here for the third consecutive day on Thursday. “If the Vamsadhara, Nagavali, the Godavari, Krishna and the Penna rivers besides other 69 rivers in the State are interlinked AP will be in top position in South India,” the former chief minister felt.
Observing that the Sujala Sravanthi is part of an exercise to interlink the rivers in North Andhra, Naidu said that the TDP government has prepared a master plan to interlink all the rivers in the region like the Vamsadhara and the Nagavali along with their tributaries like Sarada, Varaha, Thandava and Eleru. “We have taken steps to supply water to Eleru by completing the Purushottamapatnam lift irrigation which is the part of the Polavaram project that is the bedrock of our State. If the Godavari waters are supplied to North Andhra the entire region will turn into a lush green area,” Naidu narrated.
Pointing out that as he spoke about the irrigation projects in Rayalaseema on Wednesday, the Chief Secretary hurriedly called for a review meeting, the TDP supremo felt that still the Chief Minister did not find time while the Minister for Irrigation had absolutely no knowledge except shouting. What is the use of simply conducting review meetings, he asked and advised the Government to visit the project sites so that the ground reality will be known as to how worse the condition of the projects.
Pointing out that the TDP government from 2014 to 2019 had spent Rs 21,442 cr on the irrigation projects in Coastal Andhra, Naidu said that the YSRCP Government had spent a mere Rs 4,375 cr from 2019 to 2023.
Not even a single project has been taken up after the YSRCP came to power, the former chief minister said, adding that not even a single acre has been supplied irrigation water in these four years. “If an inefficient person becomes the Chief Minister this will be the condition of the projects and the people,” Naidu remarked.
Stating that the ruling party leaders have looted Rs 40,000 cr in these four years in the port city of Visakhapatnam, he felt that with these Rs 40,000 cr all the projects in North Andhra can be completed and the whole land in the region can be supplied water. The Ministers from North Andhra have become partners in looting this money but not in the development of the region, he remarked.
