The ruling YSR Congress Party has found itself in the midst of a controversy over the release of funds for an irrigation project which the TDP alleges has already been completed.
The government had released ₹15 crore for the Veligallu project in Rayachoti constituency, but the TDP claimed that the work for which the money was sanctioned has already been completed and bills cleared for the same. The opposition party was quick to corner the ruling party and its local legislator Gadikota Srikanth Reddy, who also happens to be the ruling party’s chief whip in the State Assembly.
The Veligallu project is aimed at storing 4.6 tmc of water to irrigate 24,000 acres in Lakkireddipalli, Ramapuram, Galiveedu and part of Rayachoti rural mandals. The proposal gained momentum and secured the nod of the government in 1993 when the erstwhile TDP district president R. Rajagopal Reddy was MLA. The project continued to make progress under different regimes and tenders were called for digging canals, sub-canals, distributaries and feeder channels under the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government in 2004. “Bills were settled with the company that executed the project, though work to the tune of ₹9 crore was not completed. Now, the present government has sanctioned ₹15 crore for the same,” TDP Kadapa district president R. Sreenivasa Reddy told reporters here on Tuesday.
Mr. Sreenivasa Reddy, son of the late Rajagopal Reddy, accused Mr. Srikanth Reddy of being ‘hand in glove’ with the executing company and also flayed the officials alleging that they were party to the ‘misappropriation’ of funds and yielding to pressure. He also alleged that there was a Vigilance report confirming corruption in the project, which he said was relegated to cold storage after the change of guard in the State.
“The government has to either admit that the work component for which ₹9 crore was released has not been executed, which has necessitated the release of ₹15 crore now. If it was really executed, it should explain the need for the fresh sanction of funds,” Mr. Sreenivasa Reddy said.
The TDP leader said that even as the arid southern Kadapa mandals were reeling under perennial drought, the government was trying to make money out of the situation. He said the sanction of ₹15 crore was an avoidable drain on the State exchequer and demanded a reply from the government.