Pattiseema Scheme Only for Kickbacks

HYDERABAD:  YSRC chief and opposition leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy has accused  chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu of receiving kickbacks of `300 crore in the Pattiseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (PLIS) project.

He said it was only for the sake of contractors that the project was taken up, though it meant, the state would lose another 35 TMC of Krishna water to the upper riparian states of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Addressing the gathering after inspecting Prakasam Barrage in Vijayawada on Thursday, Jagan said as per verdict of Godavari River Water Dispute Tribunal, once works of Polavaram project commence after CWC clearance, the upper riparian states will be allowed their share of 35 TMC of Krishna waters, whether Andhra Pradesh gets the benefit of the Polavaram project or not. The other thing is that any diversion of Godavari water will also make the upper riparian states to take another 35 TMC. “Because of the CM’s motivated plans, the state would be losing a total 70 TMC,” he said.

The YSRC chief said PLIS was taken up only to benefit the contractors as evident from the tenders called for the project. Only two companies had participated and the one which had bagged the contract had quoted 21.9 per cent excess. “The CM had agreed for 5 per cent excess and announced the remaining as bonus, like never before,” he said.

Accusing Naidu of selling the state and its people wholesale for his vested interests, Jagan said the capacity of Prakasam Barrage was just 3 TMC and there was not enough room to store the water lifted from Godavari through Pattiseema Project. Quoting the irrigation officials standing beside him, the opposition leader said  like Godavari river, from Krishna river also about 200 TMC of water goes waste into the sea during flood season between July to October.

“Polavaram project was designed to hold 194 TMCs during the flood season in Godavari and use 80 TMCFT for Krishna delta through right canal and 24 TMC for Visakhapatnam and North Andhra districts through Left canal. Now, the entire project seems to be put on cold storage,” he said.

Pulichintala project on Krishna river was meant to store 40 TMCFT, but during his nine-years regime earlier, Chandrababu Naidu chose not to release funds and only after YS Rajasekhara Reddy became chief minister 90 per cent works of the project were completed. “Now, Naidu is not ready to release the funds required to have the project completed, but takes up a new one. He claims all is for Rayalaseema, but is it really for Rayalaseema. I will now visit Veligonda and Pothireddypadu Head Regulators and unmask the cheating of Chandrababu Naidu,” he said. Jagan’s visit to Prakasam Barrage caused severe traffic jam on the busiest road in the city and hundreds of trucks were stranded.

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