YSR faces ire again

Desaraju Surya / TNN / Feb 4, 2007, 02:18 IST

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Sources said CPI-M's Prakash Karat dashed off a letter to the PM urging him to direct the AP government to halt all works on the Polavaram project.

HYDERABAD: Chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy appears to be precipitating a confrontation between the Congress-led UPA government at the centre and the Left Front by insisting on going ahead with the Polavaram irrigation project, a move that is being opposed tooth and nail by the CPI-M.
Sources said CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday urging him to direct the AP government to immediately halt all works on the Polavaram project as well as rein in the chief minister who, Karat said, has opted for a brazen attitude on the issue.
But instead of mellowing down Rajasekhara Reddy, Karat appears to have made him harden his stance even further.
"Come what may, the state government would go ahead with the Polavaram project. Some political parties are unnecessarily making it an issue,"the chief minister said in series of meetings in West Godavari on Saturday.

This, in turn, has CPI-M state secretary BV Raghavulu livid. "The chief minister's insistence on going ahead with the Polavaram project will have far reaching repercussions on the UPA coalition,"Raghavulu told TOI.
The state CPI-M leader wondered how the government would go ahead with the project when many cases were pending in the state High Court, Orissa High Court as well as the Supreme Court.
"It is not going to be easy. If the chief minister thinks he can override the courts, laws and the Constitution, it will be highly irresponsible behaviour on his part,"Raghavulu said.

In fact, court cases and the CPM opposition apart, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) too has raised serious objections to the state government plans over Polavaram.
As part of the massive project that is going to displace over 1.5 lakh people in three districts of the state besides in Chattisgarh and Orissa the state government drew up a plan to generate 960 MW of power using 18 tmc ft of water.
This water is sufficient to irrigate 1.8 lakh acres in the normal course but it will have to be wastefully let out into the sea because of power generation as there are no reservoirs downstream.

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