HYDERABAD: Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Friday refuted Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti Bishweswar Tudu’s statement he made in the Lok Sabha, claiming that the State government never sent a proposal to the Centre, seeking national project status for Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS).
The Union minister made the statement in reply to a question raised by Congress member Komatireddy Venkat Reddy on Thursday. In a series of tweets, Harish Rao recalled that the State government submitted several representations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister of Water Resources with a request to confer national project status to KLIS.
“False propaganda by the BJP party’s Union Minister that Telangana Govt has not submitted proposal for National Project status to Kaleshwaram Project. Hon’ble CM KCR Garu & me as Irrigation Minister made several representations to @PMOIndia and Minister of Water Resources for National status to Kaleshwaram (sic),” he tweeted.
“As quoted by BJP Minister Shri @Bishweswar_Tudu ji on the floor of parliament is a blatant lie and misleading the house and the people as well. Kaleshwaram project has accorded all clearances from CWC and also got approval from Technical advisory committee of Ministry of Jal Shakti. Thereafter #CMKCR Garu requested PM Narendra Modi to accord National status to Kaleshwaram Project. But no action has been initiated by GoI” (sic),” he said.
“When BRS MP’s had raised issue of national project status for Kaleshwaram in 2018 Parliament sessions, former Minister for Water Resource Nitin Gadkari replied that Central government has no plans to accord national project status to any project in future. Contrary to his statement, the Central government accorded national project status to Upper Bhadra Project of Karnataka and Ken-Betwa project of MP as both are BJP-ruled states. But the request of the Telangana government was denied. It is nothing but political vengeance by BJP-led Central government” he alleged.
He also recalled that the Central Water Commission (CWC) accorded approval to the Upper Bhadra Project of Karnataka, a BJP-ruled State when KWDT-II award was stayed by the Supreme Court in 2013. The CWC accorded clearances to Upper Bhadra Project and the Central government also accorded national project status for a project when the whole matter was sub judice, he pointed out. “For Kaleshwaram, everything is clear but no NP status was accorded in spite of repeated requests by TS. Is it not political vengeance?,” he asked the Centre.