HYDERABAD: Stating that politicising phone-tapping was “silly”, BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday said that the chief minister has nothing to do with it as snooping was an integral part of intelligence gathering.
“Intelligence officials gather information through various sources, including interception of phones. The home secretary accords permission. Later, they provide the information to the government without disclosing how they gathered it. Politicising phone-tapping is silly,” KCR said in an interview with a vernacular TV news channel.
He said that an intelligence network existed to gather information, which was a natural system in any government. “It (information gathering) is a secret that officials don’t reveal to anyone. It is an internal matter of the police. We (the Cabinet) have got nothing to do with it,” the former CM said.
Asked whether the present government was tapping his phones, KCR said that he would not make ‘cheap’ allegations like Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
KCR also said that he did not design the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme. He said that his government took the suggestions of engineers and the Central Water Commission. He said that WAPCOS conducted the survey. “We even carried out a Lidar survey before taking up KLIS,” he said.
“It would take just around Rs 150 crore to repair the damaged piers,” KCR said.
He alleged that Revanth was caught on TV in the vote-for-note case and was trying to malign the BRS regime. On the Delhi liquor scam, KCR said that it was just a creation of Modi: “Liquor scam is a cock-and-bull story created by Modi.”
‘Jagan will win AP Assembly elections’
KCR said that as per his information, the YSRC, led by Jagan, will win the Assembly elections in AP, though he was “least bothered” about who ruled the sibling state.