Water Resources Minister Ambati Rambabu has taken exception to reports in a section of the vernacular media that the estimates of the Polavaram project have been hiked to benefit the followers of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Addressing the media at the YSRCP office at Tadepalli, near here, on Wednesday, Mr. Rambabu said false reports were published in a Telugu daily.
Raghava construction company belonging to Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who had contested and won as MP from Khammam in 2014, was awarded the contract. Mr. Srinivas Reddy had joined the Congress party, and had no relationship with the YSRCP. The contracts were being awarded only after duly following the reverse tendering process, the Minister said.
The owner of the newspaper had published the false reports as the contract to Navayuga, a company belonging to his relatives, had been terminated, the Minister said.
TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu was parroting the same in his presentations and during his visit to the Polavaram project site, he said.
Mr. Naidu had committed historical blunders. Agreeing to take up works as per the 2013–14 rates in the year 2016 was the first mistake. Constructing the diaphragm wall before completing the cofferdam was another blunder. Mr. Naidu had committed these blunders only to benefit his close aides, the Minister alleged.
