BJP Rajya Sabha member G.V.L. Narasimha Rao has said that the Central government will soon give ₹12,911 crore to Andhra Pradesh for the construction of the Polavaram irrigation project.
It would facilitate the storage of water in the dam up to a height of 41.15 metres after getting the diaphragm wall repaired and some other works done, Mr. Narasimha Rao said while addressing the media here on June 2 (Friday).
Besides, the Centre sanctioned a revenue deficit grant of ₹10,461 crore to the State recently, he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sanctioned many projects for the State and extended maximum possible financial assistance to it as the “successor State” needed to be fully supported in its efforts to overcome the crisis triggered by bifurcation and some extraneous factors, he said.
The BJP leader insisted that the State was able to mobilise funds on a large scale from the Centre because Mr. Modi was personally looking into its requirements.
‘State in debt trap’
Mr. Narasimha Rao said the State was stuck in a debt trap, and it would have been in deeper trouble had the Central government not come to its rescue.
But the YSRCP government would not make even a passive mention of the help being extended by the Central government, he alleged.
“The forthcoming Union Cabinet meeting will be taking the decision to make payments for the Polavaram and other projects expeditiously,” he said.
The Central government was also trying to resolve the inter-State disputes hampering the construction of the Polavaram project, Mr. Narasimha Rao said.
Special incentive
The Centre had disbursed ₹55,000 crore to Andhra Pradesh under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the last nine years. No other State benefited as much as Andhra Pradesh did from the Modi government, he asserted.
Further, Mr. Narasimha Rao said that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre had given more than ₹10,000 crore to the State as a special incentive package.
The State government had raised additional loans amounting to ₹16,984 crore since 2016. As the debt was piling up, the Central government imposed curbs on borrowings, but relaxed them to a certain extent keeping the State’s precarious financial position in view, he said.
For the current financial year, the borrowings had to be cut by ₹8,000 crore, but the Centre agreed to adjust that sum over the next three years, the BJP leader added.
