Union Minister faults Telangana CM’s ‘dual views’ on Kaleshwaram corruption

Hyderabad: Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay has questioned why Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who once alleged Rs 1 lakh crore scam in the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme, has now written to the Centre claiming only Rs 9,000 crore scam in the project.

He questioned whether the Congress government has taken action against a single person in former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s family.

Addressing the media in Hyderabad on Tuesday, April 21, Sanjay questioned on what basis the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) could conduct an inquiry into the alleged scam.

Wondering why the Chief Minister has taken such a contrasting stand, Bandi Sanjay said that Reddy, who had said in the past that the Kaleshwaram project had become defunct and got washed away in the Godavari waters, was now changing his stand to get the three barrages under the project restored and rehabilitated.

The Union Minister claimed that while the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government had made the Kaleshwaram project its ATM, the present Congress government was also following the same path. He said the massive motors for lifting the Godavari water through the Kaleshwaram project were procured with hundreds of crores of rupees from foreign countries, and that an investigation should happen on this as well.

Reminding that it was the Congress had an alliance with the BRS in the past, he advised Reventh Reddy not to spread propaganda on any friendship between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the BRS.

Talking about the defeat of the constitutional amendment to implement 33 per cent reservation for women in the legislative bodies last week in the Lok Sabha, Bandi Sanjay said Revanth Reddy was responsible for doing injustice to women.

He also blamed the Telangana CM and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin for doing injustice to the southern states by opposing the delimitation process.

Bandi Sanjay’s comments came in response to Revanth Reddy accusing the saffron party that despite the state government writing to the Centre multiple times since the last nine months seeking a CBI inquiry into the Kaleshwaram project, there has been no headway.