KAKINADA: The former Rajamahendravaram MP, Vundavalli Aruna Kumar, has said that the new government should exert pressure on the Union Government to implement provisions of the AP Reorganization Act-2014 in letter and spirit.
He said, “In the past 10 years, both Telugu Desam and YSRC governments failed to get several provisions of the Act implemented and the AP incurred heavy losses. When the Telangana government was holding formation celebrations, AP was suffering from teething problems.”
He told the media on Sunday that the central government had not released revenue deficit funds to Polavaram Project and did not distribute the assets as per the Act. When the TD formed the government in 2014, the then chief minister Chandrababu Naidu submitted a report to the central government, citing a resource gap of `32,625 crore.
But, the central government released only Rs 5,617 crore and the remaining amount has not been released so far, he said.
The ex-MP said though the TD government claimed the completion of 78 per cent of the Polavaram construction work, the government filed an affidavit with the Supreme Court, saying 48 per cent of the works were completed. Now, the diaphragm wall has been washed away and nobody knows when the project will be completed, he said.
He said it was not appropriate to blame the two chief ministers for the lapses in the Polavaram project execution. The government should conduct a detailed technical probe and find out what went wrong.
“The central government now says that only Rs 521.65 crore would be released to the project,” he said.
“The Duggarajupatnam port, the steel plant, the Visakhapatnam-Vijayawada Metro Rail project etc have not been implemented and the special category status has been kept aside. In an account, the central government released only `7,500 crore out of the promised `24,300 crore.”
During the TRS government’s term, the distribution of water and assets could not be completed as the TRS could not complete the process. Now, the Congress government is in power and the Congress would abide by the law. “If the next AP government in Andhra Pradesh approaches the Telangana government and the Congress, the distribution of assets can be completed. The CCongress high command can direct the Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy to complete the process.”
