Water Resources Minister Ambati Rambabu met Union Minister of Water Resources Gajendra Singh Shekawat in New Delhi on Thursday.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Rambabu said that he met the Union Minister to discuss the issues relating to the Polavaram project. He was invited to visit the Polavaram project to which he readily accepted. A few other subjects were also discussed with the YSRCP MPs, Mr. Rambabu said.
Mr. Rambabu’s visit to New Delhi comes in the wake of recent developments such as the Union government asserting that the Andhra Pradesh government did not submit any documents relating to the Polavaram project despite repeated reminders.
“The State government has to undertake a socio-economic survey, prepare a detailed project report of distributary network of the project and formulate revised construction schedule,” the Union Minister of State for Water Resources had said in the Rajya Sabha, while regretting that the government is “yet to provide the requisite documents/compliances in spite of repeated reminders.”
The Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) also stepped up criticism that the State government had utterly failed in completion of the project.
Mr. Rambabu made light of former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s remarks that the Polavaram project was his brainchild. “Mr. Naidu never visited the Polavaram project while he served as Chief Minister for 14 years. It was the Chief Minister of combined Andhra Pradesh Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy who commenced Polavaram project works. In fact, the Central government had stated that Mr. Naidu turned the Polavaram project into an ATM,” Mr. Rambabu said.
