“AP Govt. Needs To Be More Proactive” - Union Jal Shakti Minister

“The Andhra Pradesh government needs to be more proactive and fulfill its responsibility towards implementing the Polavaram national irrigation project,” Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. Replying to a calling attention motion moved by Congress MP K.V.P. Ramachandra Rao on the need for completing pending national irrigation projects, Mr. Shekhawat observed that Polavaram had been declared a national project after the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, had been passed. While the cost of the project was initially estimated at Rs 16,000 crores, the State government had later given an escalated cost of Rs 55,548 crores following passage of the Land Acquisition Act in 2013.

Replying to a question by Congress MP T. Subbarami Reddy about when the Centre would release the remaining funds, the Minister said it would depend on when the A.P. government provides the required information. He added that the State was yet to provide audit reports for Rs 2,000 crores out of the Rs 5,000 crores that have already been spent. Responding to suggestions from some MPs that water should be shifted to the concurrent list from the State list, the Minister said this was not required. He said whenever the issue was discussed in Parliament, MPs asserted that water was the right of the States, but when it came to bearing responsibility, they looked to the Centre.

On the Teesta barrage project, the Minister said that the West Bengal government had conveyed its inability to acquire land for it, rejecting the claim by Trinamool Congress MP Md. Nadimul Haque that the Centre was not releasing funds for the project.