Andhra Pradesh

State promoting falsehood, says Telugu Desam leader

Kakinada: Senior TDP leader and Tuni MLA Yanamala Ramakrishnudu on Friday questioned the logic in inviting Congress president Sonia Gandhi to inaugurate the Pushkar lift irrigation scheme which continues to be in the limbo despite the Government’s promise in 2004-05 to complete it in two years. The Pushkar scheme was designed to create a fresh ayacut of 1.83 lakh acres but that figure is yet to cross 30,000 acres.

``It is not an isolated instance of the Government’s failure to complete the irrigation projects as per schedule. Projects like Pulichintala, Thotapalli, Chagalnadu and Thatipudi remained mere symbols of the Government’s negligence. But, it is not ashamed of projecting falsehood,” the TDP Politburo member alleged.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Ramakrishnudu said almost all irrigation projects in the coastal districts had funds constraint. For instance, the Government allocated a paltry Rs 50 crores for modernizing Godavari delta compared to the total project cost of Rs 1,400 crores. Besides, the quality of the projects was poor, he said.

Mr. Ramakrishnudu said the ONGC refinery proposed to be set up at Kakinada had almost changed its location to Mangalore. The Government was acquiring 35,000 acres of land, most of it from farmers, for the Kakinada Special Economic Zone and industrial parks.

But, few industrial units had come up in this part of the State. Land acquisition in cities like Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Guntur was continuing without tangible results, he said.

Mr. Ramakrishnudu said East Godavari lagged behind other districts in education. It was one of the 11 districts in the State which were educationally backward.

TDP leaders Chikkala Ramachandra Rao, Vanga Gita and G Rambabu were among those present.

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