Amaravati: World Bank pullout sparks a political feud

VIJAYAWADA: A day after the World Bank pulled out of funding the construction of Amaravati, planned as the new capital of Andhra, a political war has broken out with former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu slamming his successor Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The Rs 4,900-crore project was Naidu’s brainchild. After YSR Congress came to power in May, Jagan Mohan had instituted an inquiry into the alleged misuse of funds, pending which work had come to a standstill.
Naidu, who initiated the project in 2016 to get a loan of over Rs 2,000 crore, expressed his anguish in the assembly on Friday: “You have been repeatedly sending false complaints (to the World Bank)... Now in power, you are terrorising the people with your decisions, which is why the bank withdrew.”
However, government chief whip G Srikanth Reddy said that the World Bank had found several irregularities in the project. He said World Bank representatives had toured the area in 2017 and held public hearings with farmers, agricultural labourers and Dalits, who had complained against violations of existing rules in land pooling.
The Capital Region Development Authority, which is overseeing the construction, had moved a proposal for infrastructure development almost three years ago. The World Bank had readily agreed to the loan after seeing that the government had pooled nearly 33,000 acres of land, reportedly given voluntarily by farmers.
However, it decided to reconsider its decision after farmers began protesting against the previous government’s irregularities. Farmers who have land on the river bank also raised concerns about violation of environmental laws and land-pooling rules.
Sources also added that the World Bank decided to drop the proposal due to the Centre’s objection to its demand to take up independent investigation into project implementation. The Centre was of the opinion that an independent investigation by the World Bank was against the prescribed norms and could become a precedent, allowing the agency to demand the right to investigate other projects in India funded by it, they said. “Once allowed, it might want to initiate investigations into other projects funded by it. Implementation of any project is the sole right of the borrowing agency,” said a senior government official.
The lending agency can scrutinise a proposal before granting the loan, but not after the loan is sanctioned, he explained.