79% of Polavaram Left Main Canal works done in YSR’s tenure, Naidu claiming credit: Jagan Mohan Reddy

YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday (September 2, 2026) alleged that the water released by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu into the Polavaram Left Main Canal was Godavari water lifted from the existing Purushothapatnam project and not water flowing by gravity from the Polavaram reservoir.

He said the Purushothapatnam canal was constructed during Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s tenure and Mr. Naidu was claiming credit for it out of desperation.

In a post on X, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said that claiming credit for projects that were neither started nor completed by Mr. Naidu, and getting his friendly media to sing praises, had become a habit for him.

About 79% of the major works on the Polavaram Left Main Canal were completed during YSR’s tenure, but Mr. Naidu had shown them as his achievement, he said, and insisted that the corruption and loot that took place during 2014-19 in the Polavaram project had turned into a curse for Andhra Pradesh.

Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said Mr. Naidu had left the Polavaram project in disarray by carrying out the spillway and cofferdam works only partially, and that the TDP government had gone ahead with the construction of the diaphragm wall without diverting the river flow.

The project was not only delayed, but water could not be diverted through the spillway during floods because of the mistakes committed during the TDP term, he said. Because of the partially constructed upstream cofferdam, water entered through the gaps and damaged the foundations of the main dam, including the diaphragm wall, he said.

It was the YSRCP government that sorted out all those issues by first completing the approach channel, spill channel, spillway works and cofferdams and then taking up the most complex works of the main dam in a systematic and planned manner, he said.

Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy sought clarification from Mr. Naidu on the Polavaram dam height, saying that though the full reservoir level was 45.72 metres, water storage was being restricted to 41.15 metres. “If the Centre provides funds only up to the 41.15-metre level, how will the project be completed to its full extent?” he asked.

He also asked what the status was of the Uttarandhra Sujala Sravanthi (USS) scheme for which Mr. Rajasekhara Reddy had accorded administrative sanction for ₹7,215 crore in 2009.

The land acquisition and construction costs of the USS were revised to ₹17,050 crore in 2022 and the crucial first and second package works taken up at that time, but what followed during the TDP term was utter neglect, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy added.