HYDERABAD: Who is supreme — the chief minister or the Cabinet?
An interesting debate on this took place on Wednesday, when former chief secretary and former special chief secretary (Irrigation) SK Joshi deposed before the PC Ghose Commission probing the allegations of irregularities in the construction of the Kaleshwaram project.
Former special CS (Irrigation) Rajat Kumar and CB Kameswara Rao, chairman of the expert committee constituted to assist the Commission also deposed before the panel.
When Justice Ghose asked who was the policymaker on the project, Joshi said that it was the Cabinet, the chief minister, supported by administrative and technical officials of the state. To this, Justice Ghose asked whether CM comes first or the Cabinet? Joshi replied that the Cabinet has a larger authority, like a single judge bench and full court bench. To this, Justice Ghose said that though the chief justice heads a full bench, all judges of the bench sign the order and sometimes even dissent.
Justice Ghose pointed out that the CM appoints the ministers and would come first. When asked whether any dissent note was given to the Cabinet on Kaleshwaram, Joshi replied in negative. He said that ministers could give dissent notes, but may be dropped later.
Reacting to this, Ghose said that then the CM should be first in the order as a policymaker, which Joshi accepted.
Asked who took the decision to construct Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla, Joshi said it was decided at the review meetings chaired by the CM with engineers, advisers, experts of WAPCOS and using the available Google maps.
The Commission asked why the site was changed from Tummadihatti to Medigadda, Joshi said the Maharashtra government did not agree to Tummadihatti. Besides, the Central Water Commission too mentioned inadequate water availability at Tummadihatti, he said.