YSRCP leader Buggana Rajendranath Reddy.
| Photo Credit: File Photo
YSRCP leader and former Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy on Sunday claimed that the funds being spent by the TDP-led NDA government on the Polavaram irrigation project had been mobilised by the YSRCP dispensation.
Mr. Rajendranath Reddy blamed the TDP government of 2014-19, led by N. Chandrababu Naidu, for the inordinate delay in the project execution and the haphazard manner in which the structures had been built.
Addressing the media in Hyderabad, Mr. Rajendranath Reddy said it was due to the inefficiency of the TDP government that the project was stuck for several years. It was due to certain vested interests that Mr. Naidu took over its construction from the Centre in spite of its being a national project, he alleged, and claimed that the project made real progress during YSRCP regime.
It was former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy who had secured clearances for the project. His son and former Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had followed it up in 2019-24, and got a major portion of the works completed, the YSRCP leader said.
The project was crippled as Mr. Naidu agreed to the old Standard Schedule of Rates (SSR) of 2013-14, he alleged. Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy had convinced the Centre and got the rates revised upward to a total of ₹48,000 crore, he said, adding that the project would otherwise be stuck due to Mr. Naidu’s misplaced priorities.
The YSRCP leader said Mr. Naidu’s claim to have brought Krishna river water to Kuppam was false and misleading, while ridiculing his vow to complete the Polavaram diaphragm wall by the end of 2025, saying that even the preliminary works were not completed.
Published – September 21, 2025 08:09 pm IST
