Hyderabad: Declaring Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) as the biggest blunder made in the history of Independent India, Irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy has demanded BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) and BRS working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) to tender an apology to the people of Telangana.
He said that the BRS government has changed Dr BR Ambedkar Pranahitha-Chevella Srujala Sravanthi project to the Kaleshwaram project by building it at Medigadda, only with greed for collecting commissions by escalating its costs, spending Rs 94,000 crore on the project to irrigate an ayacut of 93,000 acres.
On Friday, when BRS MLAs and MLCs led by KTR went to visit the Kaleshwaram project, Uttam Kumar Reddy gave a presentation on how the people were taken for a ride by the previous government on the Kaleshwaram project.
Terming the BRS delegation’s visit as a ‘picnic,’ he strongly criticised them for demanding that water be stored at the Medigadda barrage and lifted from the Kannepally pump house.
“If water is stored near the Medigadda barrage, it will put Bhadrachalam, Eturunagaram and the barrages downstream in grave danger. Their demand shows their wicked politics,” he said.
“They are making it up as if the Congress government is responsible for the project’s failure, but it was KCR who was the irrigation and chief minister when the project was constructed, and he held the same positions when the pillars of Medigadda barrage sank six-feet deep inside the sand. This is nothing but yet another Goebbels’ propaganda of BRS,” he added.
Citing the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, where it has been stated that it would now take Rs 1,47,000 crore to complete the project, he said that there was not much difference in the ayacut created when the project was designed for Rs 38,500 crore originally, which was later redesigned and escalated to Rs 80,000 crore.
He said that as per the original project itself, the operation cost of the project was estimated as Rs 1,000 crore per year, but after the redesign, the operation costs have escalated to Rs 10,000 crore.
“The interest and part principal repayment is coming to Rs 15,000 crore annually for the debts secured for constructing the project. Once the project’s pumps operate at their full capacity upon completion of the project, the interest on the repayment of loans alone will come to Rs 25,000 crore,” he noted.
Pointing out that the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) itself has stated that due to poor quality of works the pillars of the Medigadda barrage sank, he wondered if BRS had any shame left.
“Kaleshwaram was built as the product of one man’s mind. During KCR’s regime a total of Rs 1.81 lakh crore was spent on irrigation projects,” he underlined.
