more-in Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman and YSR Congress Party MLA Bogganna Rajendranath Reddy said that the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) simply “ratified” what he and his party colleagues have been saying about Polavaram and other irrigation projects. He said that the CAG is a constitutional body known for its unbiased outlook and hence its reports should be viewed with all seriousness. Addressing a press conference at Lotus Pond, the central office of the YSRCP, in Hyderabad on Thursday, Mr. Rajendranath Reddy said that the CAG found that concessions to the tune of ?1,853.08 crore were granted to contractors. He said the Polavaram project was given after a very unfair division to pacify residuary Andhra Pradesh. But the Chandrababu Naidu government, which wanted to benefit from it, forfeited the Special Category Status (SCS). ‘Jugglery of figures’ A.P. was already bogged down by the need for a lot of infrastructure building and Polavaram only added to the burden, he said. A White Paper on irrigation released by the Telugu Desam as soon as it came to power said that there were 40 incomplete irrigation projects they would be completed at an estimated cost of ?17,400 crore. But a couple of days ago, Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said that all the irrigation projects in the State were being completed at an estimated cost of ?58,000 crore. Anyone could say that there was no comparison between the figures, he said.

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