The Bharatiya Janata Party seems to have set its eyes on taking credit from the Polavaram project. The party leaders have visited the project site the other day and have expressed satisfaction over the progress of work. However, they smelled some corruption in the implementation of the rehabilitation and resettlement (R & R) package, which was increased by three to four times by the Telugu Desam Party government. The R & R package alone had gone up to 33,000 from the initial Rs 2,500 crore. This is where the BJP sees huge corruption, though the TDP attributes the increase to the 2013 Land Acquisition Act.

The BJP leaders Kanna Lakshminarayana, Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, Daggubati Purandheswari, Kamineni Srinivas, Pydikondala Manikyala Rao, Akula Satyanarayana, G V L Narasimha Rao, Gokaraju Gangaraju, P Vishnukumar Raju, Somu Veerraju and P V N Madhav visited the project site and reviewed the progress.

The BJP leaders said that the Central government was giving funds for the State to execute the project works. While they are happy with the progress of the works, they took exception to the TDP government not giving credit to the BJP government at the Centre. The BJP leaders found fault with Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for taking total credit for the project though Prime Minister Narendra Modi was giving funds generously.

The BJP leaders have decided to launch an intensive campaign across the State to tell people how the Central government had helped the State to execute the Polavaram project. The leaders have already prepared several detailed notes on the Central government schemes implemented by the State government with funds from Delhi. But the leaders see that the TDP is projecting these schemes as its own programmes by changing the names. The party leaders have realised this and are getting ready to go to the people with facts.

“There is a massive flow of funds from the Central government to the State. The cement roads, houses, drains, toilets, LED bulbs and pensions are some of the schemes where the State is getting funds from Modi government. Unfortunately the State is not giving the due credit to the Modi government which we will expose,” the BJP leaders said.