Perhaps India’s last mega multipurpose irrigation project, the Polavaram reservoir across River Godavari in Andhra Pradesh is going to cement the ties between the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the BJP, which heads the ruling coalition NDA at the Centre. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s big push to execute the Rs 17,000 crore project on fast-track is sure to script the NDA’s repeat win in AP in the 2019 elections.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu is overjoyed as he laid the foundation stone for the main spillway of the project near Polavaram, a sleepy village in East Godavari district last week after he received a hefty single cheque of Rs 1,986 crore from the Nabard through the hands of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
This is the single largest cheque the AP government has ever received in the last one decade after the project works were launched in the combined state. Top official sources in AP who spoke to The Sunday Guardian on Thursday said that the single largest payment of around Rs 2,000 crore by cheque was possible because of the special intervention of PM Modi and his PMO, which is monitoring the project.
CM Naidu himself was ecstatic at the spillway foundation stone ceremony as he said that it was a dream come to true to him as he never imagined that the Polavaram project would be completed in his lifetime. “But,thanks to PM Modi, this project is not only going to be a reality, but also would be completed by early 2019, a near miracle,” he said. The project conceived in 1980 was pending.
Naidu is almost on cloud nine as the Polavaram project means a lot to him both politically and personally. This is not just yet another major irrigation project, but would be a major achievement as a Chief Minister if he can finish even one third of it in the next two years. Even if he can build the spillway, it would ensure a handsome win to TDP-BJP in the next general elections.
Politically too, the unexpected Polavaram bonanza from the PM has repaired the recent fissures between the TDP and the BJP. First, CM Naidu was upset over the Centre’s refusal to grant special status to AP as was promised by the previous UPA government before the bifurcation of the combined state. This has provided fodder to the opposition cannons as popular sentiment was for special status.
Naidu has initially faced opposition heat over the special status issue, but he could overcome it after the Centre announced a Rs 2.5 lakh crore economic package for the state in the form of several new institutions and infrastructure projects over the next three years. Now, the special status is not a major issue in AP, though it hasn’t died down completely. The next difficulty is the demonetisation of big notes by the PM on 8 November.
Though Naidu has taken upon himself the task of popularising the benefits of cashless transactions and digital economy, he openly voiced his anguish over the failure of the banking system in reopening their ATMs and shortage of small notes in the market. He wrote letters to the Centre on the difficulties of people on this.
His appointment as the head of a high-powered committee at the national level on implementing cashless transactions has assuaged his ruffled feelings to a large extent. The CM faced some internal pressure from within TDP to part ways with the BJP before the next elections on the issue of demonetisation. But, Naidu resisted their pressure and stoutly backed the PM’s move. A senior official close to the CM told this newspaper that in the last two-and-a-half years, Naidu was never fully happy with the Centre on various issues, including its assistance for construction of the new capital, Amaravati. “But, this big push from the Centre to complete Polavaram project has wiped out all those memories and the CM is now firmly with the PM,” said the official preferring anonymity.
Naidu is happy with the PM’s decision to fully fund the project from the Centre and also leave its execution to the state. This means the construction would be looked after by the state and its speed and quality would be in the hands of the CM. That is why Naidu has decided to visit the project site once a week, every Monday.
The completion of the 1,056 meter spillway across the river would instill confidence in the public in six to seven districts of AP who depend on the waters from the project. Though Polavaram project is located in the East Godavari district, its waters would stabilise two lakh acres of ayacut in West Godavari, Krishna and Guntur districts.
Besides, it would allow the government to divert Krishna river water to parched Rayala Seema districts —Kurnool, Kadapa and Anantapur districts. The AP government would get more water from the Krishna river for Rayala Seema as its present supplies to Krishna and Guntur districts would be met with the water from Polavaram project. With this one single major irrigation project of Polavaram, Naidu can hopefully cater to the needs of a majority part of his 13 districts AP. His arch rival and YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has been accusing him of neglecting the Polavaram project which was commenced by his late father and CM Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. Naidu will heave a sigh of relief as the responsibility of securing clearances to Polavaram project would be handled by the PMO. Till now, the project was objected to by neighbouring Orissa and Chhattisgarh on the ground that their lands would be submerged. But, due to the intervention of the PMO, these states may not create any troubles, said AP irrigation minister D. Uma Maheswara Rao.