If we want to construct a house, we will first chalk-out a plan: what should be the total plot area, what is the size of the house; how many rooms it should have; what the total budget is; how much money we have on hand and how much money we have to borrow from banks etc. Only if we have all the estimates, we will start construction of the house.
When we take so much study before constructing a small house, how much study one has to make for constructing an irrigation project?
In fact, engineering experts prepare a detailed project report (DPR) along with estimated cost, submergence areas, cost of resettlement and rehabilitation of evacuees and what the cost-benefit analysis of the project is. This is essential not only in executing the project, but also in borrowing loans from financial institutions and even central funding agencies.
But Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao does not want to do any of such things. He wants the projects constructed spending thousands of crores of rupees, without any project reports, on the pretext that it would take a long time to get the DPRs ready.
He is going in for construction of projects in a completely ad hoc, arbitrary, unscientific and irrational manner, with a total cost outlay of over Rs. 1.5 lakh crores.
"We are surprised that major irrigation projects are being taken up without a final detailed project report. If the final DPRs are ready, why are project designs and cost of projects getting continuously changed each week?" PCC president Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy asked.
Citing examples, the TPCC chief said that the cost of Polavaram-Rangareddy LI scheme has been increasing by thousands of cores each week.
"If the final detailed project reports are available, we request that the DPRs of Palamur-Rangareddy LI Scheme, Pranahitha-Adilabad, Kateshwaram. Seetharama and Dindi projects be sent to us," he demanded while asking the State Governnment to put DPRs of all irrigation projects to be put in the public domain.
