Hyderabad, Aug 4 (IANS) The Telangana government will table the report of the Justice P.C. Ghose Commission on the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project in the Assembly and decide the next course of action after taking the opinion of all political parties, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy said on Monday.

The decision was taken at the meeting of the state Cabinet chaired by the Chief Minister

The Chief Minister told a press conference after the meeting that it was decided to table the report in the Assembly and give an opportunity to all political parties to give their opinion.

He said after taking the opinion of all parties into account, the government will decide next course of action to implement the recommendations of the Commission.

Revanth Reddy made it clear that their intention was not to act out of vengeance or personal animosity towards anyone.

He said the previous BRS government not only changed the name of the project launched during Congress rule in the united Andhra Pradesh but also re-designed it, escalated the cost, and resorted to corruption.

The Cabinet approved the 660-page report of the Commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Ghose. A three-member committee of officials, which analysed the Commission’s report, placed its summary before the Cabinet.

The report held then Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) directly and vicariously accountable for the irregularities and the illegalities in planning, construction, completion, operation and maintenance of three barrages.

The commission concluded that the entire project was characterised by “rampant and brazen procedural and financial irregularities”.

The report underscores that the Kaleshwaram project, intended as a “lifeline of the State of Telangana,” became a colossal waste of public money due to a profound failure of governance, planning, technical oversight, and financial discipline, driven by the individual decisions and undue influence of political leadership.

Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikarmarka said that this is not the report of the government but the report of an independent judicial commission, which gave its findings after a thorough investigation.

He said since the project, constructed at a cost of about Rs 1 lakh crore, faces the threat of collapse, the government ordered a judicial probe. The Commission submitted its report after hearing everyone. There are no political allegations in it, he said.

Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy made a presentation before the media on the report of the judicial commission on inquiry of three barrages (Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla) of the project across the Godavari River.

He said a project, which was being described as the lifeline of Telangana, collapsed after drawing huge resources from the Treasury. He alleged that four crore people of the state were mortgaged to raise Rs 84,000 crore loans at a high interest rate.

The minister pointed out that the Pranahita-Chevella project was originally conceived at Tummidihatti and was estimated to cost Rs 38,000 crore to irrigate 16.5 lakh acres, but after the BRS came to power and after expenditure of Rs 11,000 crore, “for irrational and illogical reasons”, the project was shifted from Tummidihatti to Medigadda.

As per the Commission, “It can be categorically held that there is rank irregularity from the stage of conceptualisation of the Kaleshwaram project till the issuance of administrative approvals on 1-3-2016 for the construction of three barrages. This is not the decision of the government but of individuals.”

The Commission found that the KCR government did not consider the report of the expert committee, which had concluded that the construction of a barrage at Medigadda is not advisable.

“The then Chief Minister pre-determined and bent upon to construct a barrage at Medigadda at his free choice and the authorities associated with the decision making facilitated them,” it said.

The Ghose Commission found that the Cabinet had not ratified administrative approval of Rs 2,591 crore for the construction of the Medigadda barrage.

According to the report, the then Chief Minister took decisions that unduly favoured agencies, and led to financial loss.

“One of the factors for failure of proper operation and maintenance and consequential failure of the barrage is on account of impounding of water. It has categorically been observed and held that the then Chief Minister has directed the authorities to store water in the barrages to their full capacity for the purpose of lifting water through the pump houses. Therefore, the then Chief Minister acted against the interests of the state and had no sincere, honest and conscientious mind to protect and safeguard the three barrages constructed at a huge cost of thousands of crores of public money,” the Commission observed.

It remarked that the Chief Minister acted not as the head of the government but as the administrative executive himself.

The report says that the then Minister for Finance and Planning, Eatala Rajender, remained a tacit perpetrator, and the then Minister for Irrigation, T. Harish Rao, allowed the then Chief Minister to fulfil his desire.

On the massive cost overruns, the report says that the project, initially conceived at Rs 38,500 crore for PCSS, escalated to Rs 71,436 crore for Kaleshwaram (as per CM’s letter in 2016), and later saw revised administrative approvals totalling over Rs 1,10,248.48 crore by March 2022.

The Expert Committee noted that shifting the project from Tummidihatti to Medigadda would render “approximately Rs 6,000 crore” of work already done as “infructuous,” plus an additional Rs 1,500 crore for tunnel lining/filling, and extra land acquisition costs.

The Kaleshwaram Irrigation Project Corporation Limited (KIPCL) raised loans of Rs 87,449.15 crore (as of March 2022) with state government guarantees.

–IANS

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