Allocate funds for Polavaram in Budget: Subbarami Reddy

New Delhi: Rajya Sabha member and chairman of the committee on subordinate legislation, Dr T. Subbarami Reddy on Thursday demanded that the Union government should make allocations for the Polavaram project in the Union Budget itself, instead of taking some other routes to fund the project. It was, however, learnt that the NABARD route would be taken to fund the project, he stated.

Raising the issue in Rajya Sabha, Dr Reddy mentioned that the Polavaram project, if completed, would supply water to 7.2 lakh acres of land and generate 960 MW hydropower and lift 80 TMC of water to the Prakasam Barrage. “It also aims to supply 23 TMC of drinking water to Vizag. It will also solve the drinking water problems in 540 villages along the Polavaram project,” he said.

Dr Reddy pointed out that as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, the Central government has to fund the Polavaram project. There were two options — that the Central government would construct the project or that the state government would construct it and fund it. But surprisingly, instead of funding the project through the allocation made in the budget, they have taken the route of NABARD.

Dr Reddy, a former Union minister, highlighted that as on today, Andhra Pradesh is reeling under great difficulties.

“Previously, the state government spent '5,000 crore on Polavaram, which the Centre was supposed to reimburse. Till today, this has not happened. Ultimately, after great persuasion and giving lot of clarifications, the water resources ministry agreed to release '3,000 crore and the remaining '2,000 crore later. Out of this '3,000 crore, they released '1,850 crore last month, on November 8. But still, the money has not reached. The reason is, the water resource ministry processed it and sent to NABARD. The NABARD, in turn, should raise loans from the market. Today it is almost 28 days, but still, the matter is with the water resources ministry. When contacted, they said that they had sent the proposal for the approval of the minister to send it to NABARD. NABARD said it needed 7 to 10 days to raise money from the market and would give it to the state government,” Dr Reddy added.