The Indian government withdrew its request the bank said, while the ruling YSR Congress party accused former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu of irregularities.

World Bank’s South Asia senior communications officer Elena Karaban told The News Minute that the government of India has withdrawn its request for financing the project. “The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has been informed that the proposed project is no longer under preparation following the government’s decision,” she said.

On the other hand, the ruling party YSR Congress Party government claimed that the withdrawal was because of alleged irregularities in the project by the TDP government. The party’s MP Vijayasai Reddy said that the decision to withdraw the loan application was taken “since the Indian and Andhra government did not want a foreign agency conducting an inquiry into any alleged irregularities by the previous Naidu government”.

“The World Bank had received numerous complaints on these irregularities…. sought permission to conduct an inquiry. Understandably, the Home Ministry was concerned and so was the Andhra Pradesh government, that a foreign agency would conduct an investigation in a sovereign nation like India,” Reddy told The News Minute.

Officials who headed the AP Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) during the previous dispensation even claimed that the World Bank included the project under retro-financing category, which meant that the international lender would reimburse all the amount the government spent on the project.

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