It is clear that something has gone terribly wrong. The centre’s allocation of Rs 100 crore doesn’t match with the fast-track program of chief minister Chandraababu Naidu, who says he would complete the national project by 2018. Let’s forget the question whether is it possible or not – for a project costing about Rs 32 000 crore, allocating just Rs 100 crore is a serious mismatch. What could be the reason? Reasons are aplenty, say political circles in the state.
Polavaram is declared national project to placate the Andhras to agree for the creation of separate Telangana state in 2014. Centre asked the state to execute the project and it would reimburse the whole amount. To oversee the work on the project centre has set up Polavaram Authority.
Thinking that he was a trusted friend of BJP and the centre would blink at everything he does in the implementation of the polavaram project, Naidu enhanced the cost of the project from Rs 16,000 crore to 32,000 crore without taking the Polavaram Authority into confidence. Centre is still not able to swallow the cost escalation which is reportedly beyond any logic. As in the case of the Amaravati Capital project, Centre is suspicious of Naidu’s style of diverting the money to the projects of his choice. When union water resources ministry was wondering about the Polavaram cost escalation , two important developments took place. One is Bihar debacle, which has compelled the BJP to move closer to Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha with an eye on 2019. Odisha is opposed to the Polavaram project and all Odisha opposition parties are putting pressure on chief minister Naveen Patnaik not to agree for the project. So, going ahead with Polavaram by allocating huge sums may undermine the BJP efforts to woo its former ally into NDA before 2019 elections. Centre can’t afford to do anything that would give an impression to Odisha government that it is helping Andhra Pradesh to complete the project before 2019. The Rs 100 crore nominal allocation is meant to please the Odisha government which doesn’t want the project come up at the cost of its interests.
According to sources, second important reason that might have worked against the liberal allocation of funds for Polavaram is opposition leader Jaganmohan Reddy’s campaign in New Deli about the corruption in the irrigation projects. Jagan, by frequently visiting the national capital, effectively carried a campaign that Naidu wsa spending huge money collected from irrigation contractors on luring the MLAs in Andhra and Telangana. This has been Jagan’s campaign against Naidu since cash for vote scam broke out in Telangana. The luring of MLAs is not a big crime by itself. The point is that Jagan brought to the notice of the centre how Naidu had diverted the funds centre gave for the construction of core capital and Polavaram project to Patttiseema project and how he had given incentives to the contractors in the name of completing the project in time. In his recent visit, in the backdrop of four of his MLAs joining the TDP, Jagan is said to have informed the BJP top brass that about Rs 20 crore to Rs 30 crore had been offered to the YSRCP MLAs. The way the YSRCP MLAs joining the TDP has enough message for BJP leadership about possible foul play. Centre might have come to a conclusion that allocating huge money to please Naidu unmindful of the spending capacity of the state would only lead to the diversion of the money to unintended political programs.
The reason three- state BJP hawks like D Purandeswari, Kanna Lakshminarayana, Kavuri Sambasivarao and Somu Virraju also might have briefed the BJP central leadership about what exactly was happening in Naidu’s regime. Purandeswari’s comments on Polavaram project vindicate the role of BJP in reduced allocations for Polaravam.
According to Purandeswari, TDP government failed to furnish details of the expenditure it claimed ( Rs 2300 crore) incurred on the Polavaram project and this led to the nominal allocations.
” As per the MoU on Polavaram, state should take the Polavaram authority into confidence while taking up the works and effecting changes in the project. When the project cost was hiked from Rs 16,000 crore to Rs 32,000 crore, state acted independently and centre was not kept informed,” she said. She also questioned the logic behind the diverting the Polavarm funds to Pattiseema when centre clearly said on the floor of the Lok Sabha that Pattiseema was not part of Polavaram.
So, it is difficult for Naidu to stick to the deadline 2018 for the completion of Polavaram project given the trust deficit between the BJP leadership and him. In the present budget centre was liberal in allocating funds for central projects in AP- from central institutes to Vizag port. This spirit is amiss in the allocations to capital city, Polavaram and backward region development fund.
