HYDERABAD: If sources are to be believed, the report submitted by the PC Ghose Commission of Inquiry holds BRS president and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao “directly and vicariously accountable” for irregularities in the planning, execution, completion, and operation and maintenance (O&M) of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS).
According to highly placed sources, the Commission reportedly found that the project was taken up without Cabinet approval and fixed responsibility on the then irrigation minister T Harish Rao and then finance minister Eatala Rajender.
It also recommended the severest legal action against six irrigation engineers for deliberately misleading the Commission and for giving false depositions. The report noted that the then engineer-in-chief, C Muralidhar Rao, recently caught by the ACB, misrepresented facts to the Central Water Commission.
One of the most serious findings relates to KCR’s directive to continuously impound water in the barrages to full capacity for lifting through pump houses, despite barrages being designed as low-head diversion structures, not storage systems. This, the Commission stated, was a “major cause for distress”, linking it directly to the sinking of piers at the Medigadda barrage.
The report flagged massive cost escalations, flawed designs and procedural lapses throughout the project’s construction. The Commission, headed by former Supreme Court judge PC Ghose, described KLIS as a scheme marked by “rampant and brazen procedural and financial irregularities”.
‘Rampant procedural & financial irregularities’
The three-volume, 650-page report was submitted to the state government on July 31. A summary was prepared over the weekend and handed over to Irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy. The Cabinet is expected to review the report on Monday and decide the next course of action. Sources said the government may order a CID probe based on the findings.
According to reliable sources, the Commission also recommended the recovery of Rs 677.67 lakh paid to WAPCOS, whose report was “brushed aside”. It also observed that “the project authorities and the agency acted in collusion, with concerted and malicious intent, pursuing unfair and ulterior motives to unlawfully profit from the massive public funds spent on constructing the Medigadda barrage.”
It underscored that the Kaleshwaram project, envisioned as the “lifeline of Telangana”, had instead become a colossal waste of public money due to a deep failure of governance, planning, technical oversight and financial discipline. This breakdown, the report purportedly said, was driven by the undue influence and individual decisions of political leadership.
The Commission concluded with a scathing indictment, citing rampant procedural and financial irregularities, flawed planning, defective designs, shoddy construction and a complete lack of effective operation and maintenance.
Responsibility was squarely fixed on key political and administrative figures, particularly the then CM, for direct involvement and for bypassing established norms, which led to massive public expenditure and the current structural failures in the barrages.
Laying bare the rot
The Commission of Inquiry, headed by Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose, is believed to have held several individuals and institutional functionaries — including political leaders and senior officials — responsible for the failure of Medigadda and other barrages under the Kaleshwaram Project. The Commission has purportedly recommended action against former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, his then Cabinet colleagues T Harish Rao and Eatala Rajender, as well as officials like Smita Sabharwal, SK Joshi and then ENC C Muralidhar Rao
Drowning in irregularities
SOLE DECISION OF KCR: The decision to construct barrages at Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla was “the sole and individual decision of the Minister (Irrigation) and the Chief Minister.” The Commission noted there was no formal “decision of the government”
SUPPRESSION OF EXPERT REPORTS: An Expert Committee formed on January 21, 2015, had rejected the Medigadda proposal due to “prohibitive cost and time consumption,” and suggested alternatives like Vemanapally. This report was “intentionally… not considered” and “kept in cold storage” by then chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and irrigation minister
NO JUSTIFICATION FOR MEDIGADDA & LACK of CABINET APPROVAL: The report said that the reason — “no availability of water at Tummidihatti” — for shifting the barrage to Medigadda “does not appear to be sincere and honest”. Initial administrative approvals were not placed before or cleared by the Cabinet, violating Business Rules, it added
IRREGULARITIES IN AWARDING OF CONTRACT: KCR, in a letter to the prime minister on February 11, 2016, pegged the project cost at Rs 71,436 crore — even before WAPCOS submitted its final report. Despite advice from the CWC to go for a “turnkey basis,” contracts were awarded on a “lump sum” basis
COST ESCALATIONS: The decision to shift Annaram and Sundilla locations was made by the High Power Committee in October 2016 — after contracts had already been awarded in July/August — and “without consulting WAPCOS”. In 2021–22, costs were further increased citing “increased quantities, changes in specifications and designs, and inclusion of items like staff quarters, guest houses, slope protection, taxes and escalation.” The Commission termed these “malicious” efforts “to unduly favour the Agencies” and “wrongfully siphon public funds”
NO O&M: There was no operation or maintenance — no periodic checks, inspections, or pre/post-monsoon reports — carried out on any of the three barrages
DESIGN DEFICIENCIES: The barrages, designed on “permeable foundations,” were wrongly used as storage structures, contrary to standard practice. At Annaram and Sundilla, crucial studies — backwater, tailwater curves, G-D curves, geophysical investigations — were not conducted. Quality control was found “inadequate,” particularly for secant piles, where even verticality checks were simply marked “yes” without data
UNDUE FAVOURS TO CONTRACTORS: The report found that “Substantial Construction Completion Certificate” (9.9.2019) and “Completion Certificate” (15.3.2021) for Medigadda were “wrong, illegal and tainted with malice,” as the works were incomplete and defects known