YSR Congress leaders have scuttled the World Bank loan to Amaravati and the new government is doing everything possible to sabotage the Andhra Pradesh capital project, former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has alleged.

He made these charges in the State Assembly on Monday during the debate on the cancellation of the World Bank loan to the Amaravati project. He said from the beginning the YSR Congress was against developing Amaravati as the new capital and did everything possible even when it was in the Opposition.

The TDP government had acquired 33,000 acres from farmers through a land pooling process ... “We designed it as self-financing project. The World Bank and other multi-lateral lending agencies came forward to lend ₹5,000 crore for Amaravati as a soft loan, at low interest rates, and the repayment would have started after 20 years. By then, Amaravati would have become a modern city." He alleged that YSR Congress leaders had levelled corruption charges even when in the Opposition and "now they are repeating it. I challenge them to prove it".

Rebuttal

Rebutting Naidu’s charges, State Finance Minister B Rajendranath Reddy said, “The contentions of the former Chief Minister are absurd. Nobody takes a loan and builds a city. We cannot afford it. A city has to grow on its own. Of course, the government will develop the infrastructure over a period, investing judiciously. We are also committed to the development of Amaravati. But we cannot build castles in air.”

He said, “... the whole tendering process was vitiated during the TDP regime and tenders for works worth ₹33,000 crore or so were finalised in an erroneous manner, favouring certain companies close to the powers that be. Should we allow the fraud to continue? The fact is the World Bank has gone back on the loan because of the large-scale corruption...”

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