Polavaram row: Chandrababu Naidu suspects YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s role

Nellore: TD president and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu suspects the role of YSRC president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy behind a petition in the Supreme Court against the Polavaram Project in the last week of February.

Campaigning in Nellore and Ongole on Monday, he targeted Mr Reddy, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for working against AP interests.

In Vijayawada, AP minister Devineni Uma Maheshwara Rao said the TS government had filed a fresh case in the Supreme Court seeking a technical study of the impact of backwaters of the Polavaram project in the affected states.

This has posed a threat to the ongoing works at the site, the minister said. He accused Mr Chandrasekhar Rao of “deliberately” creating hurdles to AP projects “out of sheer jealousy” over the response Mr Naidu was getting.

He demanded that Mr Reddy explain why he had entered into an “illegal, secret deal” with Chandrasekhar Rao who is “hell bent” on harming the future of lakhs of farmers in AP. He said Mr Chandrasekhar Rao was bringing up old issues on Polavaram on which the Central Water Commission and the AP water resources ministry had given clarifications to the apex court during hearing in different cases.