India
Chandrababu Naidu took a dig at the Centre regarding reimbursement of Rs 3,722 crore spent on Polavaram project. BJP's Nitin Gadkari evens the score.
Amaravati: On Monday, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu wrote a letter to Union water resources minister Nitin Gadkari demanding that the Centre should immediately reimburse Rs 3,722 crore spent by the state government on the Polavaram project.
Naidu also wanted the Centre to provide an approval of the revised cost estimates of Polavaram, submitted to the central water commission in August 2017.
Naidu wrote the letter even as the Union Minister spoke at a BJP workers' conference here asserting that the Centre would spend "100%" money on Polavaram.
Nonetheless, Naidu also said that Rs 10,459 crore was spent after Polavaram was declared a national project in June 2014. Of this, the Centre reimbursed Rs 6,727 crore, with the last portion coming in June 2018.
Reacting to Naidu's claims, Nitin Gadkari said that the Centre is going to bear all the expenses incurred, and more than 50% of the project is completed. Nitin Gadkari also spoke about the Bharatmala program in which Rs 44,000 crore has been spent to build the highways.
Anantapur to Amaravati highway is being constructed with Rs 20,000 crore, Visakhapatnam to Chennai industrial corridor will also be completed, and a Petro Chemical University will be set up in Kakinada, the minister said. The senior BJP leader pointed out that the Union government has allocated a sum of Rs 1, 25,000 crore to Andhra Pradesh.
Gadkari added that the Centre had granted Rs 24,000 crore to the state after the TDP left the BJP. He concluded by saying that Chandrababu is scared of Modi and is making baseless comments.
Andhra Pradesh BJP president Kanna Lakshmi Narayana took pot shots at TDP and said the party leaders have accepted commissions by handing over the contracts of the programs granted by the BJP.
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