Leader of Opposition YS Jaganmoahn Reddy has accused that Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has been showing more interest in contractors and the eventual kickbacks and has never been keen on completing irrigation projects unlike YSR who gushed in major projects to provide water to the parched Rayalaseema region.
Participating in the farmers’ dharna demanding Hundri-Neva water to Ananthapur district, in Uravakonda, he said that his father YSR has completed nearly 90 % of the works on the project which is a major water source to the region while Chandrababu Naidu has been delaying it and even in his three years in office did not release adequate funds for completion of the project.
He said that the 10 % works include the building of distributor canal which would cater to the irrigation needs of the locals and in this Uravakonda constituency itself 80,000 acres of land would be irrigated.
He alleged that during his previous term of nine years as well Chandrababu had released only Rs 24 crores which took care of salaries and other overheads. Not a single lift or one kilometer of canal was dug during his term but he has attended two foundation stone laying functions of the project in the pre-election phase, he added.
To complete the project, the funds needed would be around Rs 2,000 crores, but the YSRCP Chief deplored that the State has released Rs 100 cores in 2014-15 followed by Rs 380 crore and Rs 504 crores in the subsequent years which were not even sufficient for the overheads, including power charges, he said.
He expressed concern that Ananthapur farmers are migrating as they lost hope which is a shame on part of the government. Even the rural employment guarantee scheme is not being implemented properly. He has a qualm for farmers, women, students and youth and his promise to weavers was never kept, he added.
