Hyderabad, Nov. 21: Major Irrigation Minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah on Sunday charged Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu with politicising the irrigation tenders issue to delay the execution of projects. Addressing a press conference here, Ponnala said the Telugu Desam has been distorting facts and misleading people to derive political mileage.

The TD leadership has been speaking of mobilisation fund advanced to contractors. First the TD leadership said the State government advanced Rs 250 crore. Then it was increased to Rs 450 crore and now it says the government gave Rs 500 crore to contractors. “The fact is that the government gave only Rs 27 crore to contractors towards mobilisation fund against full bank guarantee. The government knows how to recover the money. If the TD has the list of contractors whom the government had advanced Rs 500 crore, let it make it public. We will recover the fund from them,” he said.

..DC