Hyderabad, November 17: Telangana MPs appear to be progressing in stalling the Indirasagar (Polavaram) integrated irrigation project which the Andhra MPs want at any cost and at an early date.
Ever since the Telangana movement gained momentum, the pace of the project work has slowed down with Telangana leaders in the Congress and the Opposition parties, mainly the TRS, opposing it on the ground that it would lead to submergence of tribal areas of Khammam, a Telangana district.
Last night’s sparring between CWC member K Keshava Rao and Eluru MP Kavuri Sambasiva Rao in Delhi appears to have driven the final nail in the coffin what with the Congress being caught on the horns of a dilemma on whether to accord sanction for the revised 2010-11 estimate of the Rs 16,010-crore project pending with it for quite some time now. The 2005-06 estimate was Rs10,151 crore.
The recent letter to the state government by the Union environment ministry seeking to know why it should not slap a show-cause notice for going ahead with works without obtaining clearance for components of the project that were added subsequently strengthens the suspicion that the Centre wants to go slow on the project to forestall a political backlash in Telangana.
As December 31, the date for for Justice BN Srikrishna Committee for submitting its report to the Centre, is nearing there is anxiety among Telangana protagonists on what the verdict would be and whether the Centre will act on it if it is in favour of Telangana.
Forget about the national project status, even clearing the revised estimate might lead to a situation where the Congress would have to pay a pay a heavy political price in Telangana districts where its stock is none too encouraging what with the drubbing it received in the July byelections.
“We want Polavaram. But our party appears to be in two minds. If it wants to give Polavaram, nothing can stop it.
If does not want or wants to postpone, it could come up with one excuse or the other. Not approving the revised estimate and the frequent voices of protests by Telangana Congress leaders against national project status make us wonder if the Congress will be able to move decisively in favour of the project,” an MP from coastal Andhra said.
State officials are flummoxed by the Centre’s inaction on the revised estimate and the letter seeking an explanation why it should not slap a show-cause notice on the state government for going ahead with the project. They are unable to read the mind of the leaders at a time when Sonia Gandhi herself had written to chief minister that she would pursue the process of according Polavaram the national project status.
–Agencies