Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & Nalgonda MP Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao was indulging in massive corruption by manipulating tenders of Dummugudem Barrage of Kaleshwaram project worth over Rs. 3,000 crores.
Having a live interaction with senior party leaders through video-conference on Tuesday, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that while the entire world was busy fighting the Coronavirus, KCR and close relatives were busy taking huge kickbacks from contractors of Kaleshwaram projects.
“This massive corruption in irrigation projects is happening when there is a total lockdown and no one could come out. The tender was called and closed during the lockdown period. Hence, there was no serious global bidding. As per our information, the estimates have been boosted by 30-40% and huge commissions were paid to the powers at being,” he alleged.
Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the Chief Minister, who also holds the Irrigation Portfolio, and his relatives benefitted from the manipulations in the tender process. “We demand that these tenders are cancelled and fresh tenders are called at a global scale,” he demanded.
Stating that today (May 12, 2020, Tuesday), was the last date for submitting bids, Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that there was a meeting at the Chief Minister’s house with regard to Rs. 3,000 crore tender and it has been manipulated. He claimed that the L&T would be awarded the tender when it opens tomorrow. “If this is not manipulated, then how would we learn who is bidding and who is getting the L1 price,” he said.
Uttam Kumar Reddy said that it was highly unfortunate that CM KCR has remained silent on the works taken by Andhra Pradesh Government for the last six months to draw an additional 4 TMC of water from Pothireddypadu. “KCR Govt is spending about Rs. 1 lakh crore to get 2 TMC water through lift irrigation. Besides capital, the government will have to spend another Rs. 10,000 crore on electricity, maintenance and manpower.
However, the Srisailam water, which is supposed to come to us by gravity, is being taken away by AP Govt and KCR has hardly made any noise till yesterday,” he said.
The TPCC Chief announced that the Congress party would take up this issue to the public as a gross failure of KCR and expose his collusion with Jagan Mohan Reddy. “AP’s plans on Pothireddypadu will destroy the irrigation in entire Krishna Basin and deprive Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Khammam and other districts of their due share in Water.
This will destroy the very purpose of formation of Telangana State,” he said adding that the Congress party would approach all legal forums to get justice.