Judicial inquiry into Kaleshwaram project within week, BJP, BRS partners in crime: Uttam Kumar Reddy

HYDERABAD: Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy has said that the Government will order a judicial inquiry into the corruption and the damage to barrages of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) during this week.

Addressing media at the State Secretariat on Tuesday, he said that the Congress was committed to bringing out the real reasons for the sagging of the pier of the Medigadda barrage as promised in the Congress party manifesto released before the elections.

Taking a serious note of the demand made by the State BJP president and Union Minister G Kishan Reddy challenging the Congress to seek CBI inquiry into KLIP, the Irrigation Minister wondered why the BJP-led Central Government took no action for over a decade against the BRS Government.

“This morning State BJP president G Kishan Reddy spoke on KLIP and irrigation projects. He tried to cover up the inaction of the BJP and tried to throw mud on us. BJP at the Centre supported KLIP and let the BRS rob the State in the name of the project,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

Elaborating on how the BJP at the Centre let the BRS Government get huge loans from the Power Finance Corporation (PFC)and the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), he said that the BJP at the Centre changed the memorandum of articles of the PFC to sanction a loan of Rs 1.2lakh crore for KLIP and the REC gave Rs 60,000 crore for KLIP. “Both the Central organisation ever gave a single rupee to Irrigation projects since their inception,” the Irrigation Minister pointed out.

He asked the State BJP president on how the centre allowed various banks to give loans generously to the KLIP while the RBI is under the charge of the Union Finance Ministry. “Is the BJP connived with the BRS in looting these financial institutions? You are a Central Minister, have you visited the Medigadda project site after the sagging occurred on October 21, 2023,” he asked Kishan Reddy.

He said that no one was allowed to visit Medigadda after the mishap and even media was to allowed to venture near the project site. “It was only after a team of Ministers took the media for an onsite presentation that the real picture of the damage came to the light,” the Minister added.

The Irrigation Minister said that the Central Water Commission a Central Government organisation permitted the BRS Government’s initial estimates of Rs 80,000 crore for the KLIP and later permitted enhancement of the estimate to Rs 1.27 crore.

“The same Centre harasses opposition party leaders and governments by instigating the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. Then why no action on former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha,” he pointed out. He said that BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president JP Nadda have called KLIP KCR’s ATM, but never took action against KCR.

Recalling his questions in the Loksabha as an MP, the Minister said that the Union Government in its reply said that the BRS Government never asked for a national status for the KLIP, contrary to what that party was saying all these years.

Replying to a question, he said that the decision to undertake repairs to the damaged section of Medigadda would be taken after a thorough investigation by the engineers concerned. He also made it clear that the contractor company would have to take up the repairs or reconstruction at its own cost. He said that no further payment would be made to contractors of Annaram and Sundilla barrages till the problem at hand was sorted out.