HYDERABAD: Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday said that the Telangana High Court, in its order on the PC Ghose Commission’s report on Kaleshwaram, did not give a clean chit to anyone.
In a press statement issued here, the minister said that the government will decide the future course of action after examining the high court order in detail. “It is the responsibility of the present government to determine the reasons and take action as per law,” he said.
Uttam further said that the state government already wrote to the Union government with a request for a CBI inquiry into the irregularities and failures in the construction of the Kaleshwaram project. “Today’s high court order is not an obstacle to the CBI inquiry. The court has not given a clean chit to anyone,” he added.
The minister said that petitioners approached the high court, seeking quashing of GO No. 6, which constituted the Justice PC Ghose Commission. The high court, however, did not find fault with the constitution of the commission, he said, adding: “The court fully upheld the appointment of the Commission. It stated that the appointment of the commission was neither arbitrary nor ultra vires.”
Stating that the high court also did not find fault with the findings of the commission, he added: “The court raised objections regarding certain determinations made against individuals in the judicial commission’s report, pointing out that notices were not issued to them in the prescribed format. It granted relief to the petitioners by stating that no action should be taken against them solely based on the judicial commission’s report.”
‘Purely procedural, technical matter’
The irrigation minister, however, said that the “collapse of the Kaleshwaram project was a fact and irregularities occurred at every stage — from site selection to design, construction and maintenance. But the court clarified that remarks made by the commission against certain individuals would remain inoperative only because notices were not issued to them.”
“That’s purely a procedural and technical matter,” he added.
The minister recalled that the PC Ghose Commission submitted a 640-page report after “examining engineers, IAS officers and administrative officials responsible at that time”.
“On September 1 last year, the government issued a GO and notification handing over the investigation to the CBI. The high court order did not hinder the CBI inquiry,” Uttam said.
Reiterating that the Kaleshwaram project was “entirely a human failure and the biggest man-made disaster in the country”, the minister said: “Though not even a drop of water from the project was utilised in the last three years, the government has been repaying Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore debts/interests.”