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Revanth challenges KCR to discuss Kaleshwaram project in Telangana assembly
Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy challenged BRS to come to the assembly and have a discussion on Kaleshwaram irrigation project
Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday challenged Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president K Chandrashekar Rao to come to the state legislative assembly and take part in the discussion on a massive scam that took place in the construction of Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project on Godavari river.
Revanth Reddy on Thursday led a team of his cabinet colleagues and members of the state legislative assembly on a site visit to Medigadda barrage of Kaleshwaram project, which suffered serious damages due to sinking of pillars last October.
Addressing the gathering after the inspection of damages, the chief minister said it was a blatant lie that the Kaleshwaram project had provided irrigation to 10 million acres under its command area. “The BRS government had so far spent more than ₹94,000 crore, but had provided irrigation to only 98,570 acres,” he said.
He further said the government was spending ₹10,500 crore only on power supply alone. “If one were to take into account the debt servicing and operation and maintenance expenditure, the government will have to spend ₹25,000 crore on the Kaleshwaram project every year,” he said.
Revanth Reddy said official records indicated that the authorities had sounded the contractors about damages to the barrage way back in 2020. But the warning was ignored, resulting in serious damages to the barrage now,” he said.
He further said all the three barrages of Kaleshwaram – Medigadda, Sundilla and Annaram – were constructed with the same technology. “Now, none of these barrages can store water because of the damages caused at Medigadda. We do not know what would be the fate of other barrages, if water is pumped into these reservoirs,” he said.
The chief minister alleged that KCR had conveniently held the public meeting at Nalgonda, only to avoid discussion in the state assembly on the looting of public money in the name of redesigning the Kaleshwaram project.
“If KCR is a man of integrity, why is he not attending the assembly session? We shall expose his government’s misdeeds with full evidence. At the Nalgonda meet, he tried to underplay the massive damages of the Medigadda project. Why didn’t he come here and see the project for himself? We told him we were ready to provide him with a helicopter to bring him to the project site,” he said.
Revanth Reddy said he was inviting KCR once again to the state assembly and take part in the debate on the state budget and irrigation sectors. “We shall expose how he had looted the public money in the name of Kaleshwaram,” he challenged.
