HYDERABAD: Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao on Saturday dropped a political bombshell, accusing BJP MP Eatala Rajender of lying before the Justice PC Ghose Commission over the approval process for the Kaleshwaram project. He stated that the project was never approved by the state Cabinet during the BRS regime and was instead taken up through an executive order.
Speaking to reporters at the Secretariat, Nageswara Rao called Rajender’s deposition before the Kaleshwaram commission on Friday a “bundle of lies.” “The Cabinet never approved the construction of the Kaleshwaram project. Only the revised estimates came up for discussion, three years after construction had already begun.
The decision to build Kaleshwaram was not collective. Let him show even one document that proves the Cabinet sanctioned it,” the minister asserted. Both served as ministers in the first BRS government.
Nageswara Rao also challenged the BJP MP to prove his claim that a Cabinet sub-committee, comprising Harish, Nageswara Rao and Rajender, gave the green signal for the project. The minister said he would submit all relevant documents to the Ghose panel, which is probing alleged irregularities in the construction of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme.
‘No sub-panel formed for Kaleshwaram proj’
Nageswara Rao clarified that the sub-committee mentioned by Rajender was not constituted for the Kaleshwaram project at all. “It was formed 15 days after the Medigadda project was sanctioned, only to study ongoing irrigation schemes like Devadula, Kanthanapally, Pranahita and Flood Flow Canal,” he explained. “The committee met only two or three times and submitted project-specific reports. At no point did we recommend the construction of Kaleshwaram or its barrages,” Nageswara Rao added.