The CPI(M), along with the like-minded parties and organisations, will spearhead a struggle for early completion of the Veligonda project, which is progressing at a snail’s pace due to “criminal negligence” of the State government , its Polit Bureau member B.V. Raghavulu has said.
Speaking after inspecting the Tunnel-I drilling work at the project site near Pedaraveedu in Prakasam district on Friday, Mr. Raghavulu said the project, conceived in 1991, had not seen the light of day even 27 years later. In the last four years, not even two metres per day had been drilled even as the tunnel boring machine imported from Germany was capable of drilling 12 to 15 metres per day, he said.
The day also marked the conclusion of the two padayatras undertaken to Markapur from Pamur and Yerragondapalem by CPI(M) West Prakasam unit members.
The TDP government had wilfully not allocated adequate funds for the project, he charged. Going by the current pace of work, it would take another four years to complete the remaining work, he added.Kickbacks alleged
The government had changed the contractor allegedly for the sake of kickbacks, he said. The project implementation was hit due to litigation with the old contractor. The government itself could drill the remaining part of the tunnel to end the impasse, he observed.
Asking the people to take Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s claim of completing the first phase of the project by Sankaranti with a pinch of salt, he said Mr. Naidu, who had promised to complete the project within one year of coming to power, had kept extending the deadline. He said the headworks at Kollamvagu to bring water from Srisailam to the tunnels had not also made any headway. Without settling the claims of the people who would be displaced, how would the government ensure water to the fields of farmers, he asked.
‘Settle wages’
Giving a patient hearing to a group of workers engaged by the contractor to drill the tunnel, Mr. Raghavulu threatened that if their wages, which were pending payment for the last eight months, were not settled immediately, the CPI(M)-led CITU, along with other trade unions, would agitate in their support. The government should first settle their wages, and deduct the same while settling the contractor’s bill, suggested CPI(M) State Secretariat member Y.V. Rao.
Tie-up with JSP
Later, talking to The Hindu, Mr. Raghavulu said the Left parties the CPI(M) and the CPI, would have a truck with JSP president Pawan Kalyan in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 2019.
“We will not only strike together on various people’s issues but also on political issues,” he said after addressing a public meeting at Markapur.
“As the elections near, we will finalise seat sharing,” he added.
He said the BJP had lost strength and credibility in the last four years.
Addressing the public meeting, he said the TDP government had failed on all fronts.