The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : TDP for all-party meet on clearance of projects

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 07, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

TDP for all-party meet on clearance of projects

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JAN. 6. The Telugu Desam Party has demanded an all- party meeting to discuss various aspects of Central clearance of irrigation projects, saying the State Government's efforts in this direction smacks of insincerity and carelessness.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, the TDP leaders -- M. V. Mysoora Reddy, Kodela Sivaprasada Rao and G. Sukhender Reddy -- said the enthusiasm shown by the Government in passing over the project tenders to a select group of contractors was clearly lacking in obtaining clearance from Centre.

Disinterest made clear

The disinterest became clear in the meetings with the Union Ministers at New Delhi.

The Principal Secretary of Irrigation, who could have articulated the State's needs, abstained. The Congress MP, G. Venkatswamy, walked out of the meeting in disgust. Some MPs from the State had a running argument with the Union Minister.

No one knew how many projects had been sent for clearance, the stage of approval, and whether these had the mandatory Detailed Project Reports (DPR).

A number of projects had inter-state dimensions. The Central Water Commission had made it clear that it would not accept proposals not having DPRs.

And if there were DPRs, why was the Government adopting Engineering Procurement and Construction method of finalising contracts.

Under EPC, designing and detailed investigation and line estimates were being left to the contractors.

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