Hyderabad: N Ramchander Rao, a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Telangana, has urged the state government to hand over the investigation of the Kaleshwaram project to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), alleging corruption and irregularities in the multi-crore lift irrigation scheme.
Rao, who is also a member of the Legislative Council, said that the BJP has been raising the issue of the Kaleshwaram project being an “ATM” for the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government, which had inflated the cost of the project and awarded contracts to its favoured companies.
“The Kaleshwaram project has been constructed with more cost than actually required. From time to time, both in the council and in the assembly, the BJP has maintained that the Kaleshwaram project is an ATM for the BRS government,” Rao told ANI on Friday.
He said that the recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has exposed the wasteful expenditure and the undue benefit to the contractors in the project, and demanded that the matter should be given to the CBI for a thorough probe.
“Now, after the CAG’s report, that there has been a wasteful expenditure purposefully to make quick money, I think that the matter should now be given to the CBI for investigation. … We demand that the Congress government in Telangana hand over the Kaleshwaram issue investigation to the CBI immediately,” he said.
The CAG report, which was tabled in the state assembly on Thursday, stated that the Kaleshwaram project, touted as the world’s largest multi-stage lift irrigation scheme on the Godavari river, is “economically unviable” and that the cost of the project is now likely to exceed Rs 1.4 lakh crore (Rs 1,47,427.41 crore) as against the cost of (Rs 81,911.01 crore) projected to the Central Water Commission (CWC).
The CAG report also pointed out the lack of a comprehensive plan, the absence of administrative approval for the project as a whole, the possibility of undue benefit of at least Rs 2,684.73 crore to contractors for supply and commissioning of pumps, motors etc., and the poor planning and execution of the project.
The Kaleshwaram project has been mired in controversies, especially after some of the pillars of the Medigadda barrage, a key component of the project, collapsed last year. The National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) had found that the barrage was severely damaged and needed to be completely rebuilt.
The BJP and the Congress have been targeting the BRS government over the Kaleshwaram project in the run-up to the assembly elections, which are due in May this year. The BRS, which had won a landslide victory in the 2019 polls, suffered a setback in the recent municipal elections, losing several seats to the BJP and the Congress.
The Kaleshwaram project is a modified version of the Dr B R Ambedkar Pranahita-Chevella Sujala Sravanthi Lift Irrigation Scheme (PCSS project), which was conceived by the undivided Andhra Pradesh state. The project aims to divert water from the Godavari river to irrigate about 45 lakh acres of land in Telangana and provide drinking water to Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
