HYDERABAD: Continuing her tirade against the State government over alleged corruption in the implementation of its flagship irrigation project -- Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), YSRTP president YS Sharmila on Monday said that the network of reservoirs, lifts, canals, pump houses, Bahubali (gigantic) motors were “useless”, and that they were constructed, with a three-fold increase in the project cost, only for the “financial benefit” of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Terming the project as a huge fiasco of the State government, she announced her decision to take out a protest rally from Jantar Mantar to the Parliament House in Delhi on Tuesday to highlight the issue.
Addressing the media, she said: “The biggest scams that rocked the country in the past are smaller when compared to Kaleshwaram scam. Despite many complaints, the authorities failed to take any action over the issue. We will stage a protest march from Jantar Mantar to the Parliament House to make the entire country understand the magnitude of the Kaleshwaram scam and our fight against it in the last two years.”
“Even though the project caused a huge loss to the State exchequer, it is not even considered a scam like some others,” she said.
“While two tmc of water can be utilised per day, they are drawing just half a tmc from Kaleshwaram. As promised, the government is not providing irrigation water to 18 lakh acres. The project’s debt servicing cost coupled with ever-increasing power bills are forcing Telangana to bleed,” she added.
Urging the BRS MPs to join her in the fight against corruption, she said: “Ours is the only party that has been fighting against this Kaleshwaram scam. We met everyone, from the ED to the CAG. We will continue to wage this war until the Parliament takes it up. I invite all Telangana MPs to join me in this fight for the sake of four crore people of Telangana.”