Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has no doubt played a crucial role in achieving statehood to the region and brought his party to victory twice – in 2014 and 2018.
It does not mean he alone should be credited for the formation of the state. Millions of people waged a relentless battle before KCR and during his period.
And there are many intellectuals in the state who have a greater understanding on the issues confronting Telangana.
But KCR thinks he is the only visionary in the state and nobody can match up to his level of understanding on the issues of Telangana.
If anybody points out any lapses in his thinking, he will shout at them and abuses them with choicest words like “Chavatalu,” “Daddammalu,” “Sannasulu” and “Idiots.”
The Kaleshwaram project taken up by KCR government is no doubt a gigantic project constructed in a record time, but there have always been allegations of corruption involved in the project and people had questioned his intentions in shifting the location of the project from Tummidihatti to Medigadda.
Several experts pointed out how the redesigning of the project had resulted in escalation of the project cost by multiple times with no additional benefits for the people.
They also warned that reverse pumping of water from Medigadda to barrages constructed upstream would result in huge power bills.
When the actual project materialised this year, it was proved that the power bill for lifting water from Medigadda to upstream was around Rs 20 crore to lift one TMC ft of water.
Ironically, all this water lifted upwards had to be released back into the river again by opening gates of Medigadda, as there were heavy inflows of water from upstream, resulting in huge wastage of public money.
When it was pointed out by some experts, KCR fumed at them and started abusing them as fools.
“I don’t care when these people bark. I know what has to be done and nobody knows better than me how to extend benefits to the people of Telangana,” he asserted.
He said he would not mind spending Rs 15,000 crore per annum on power bills to lift water from Kaleshwaram and supply it across the state for irrigation, drinking and industrial purposes.
Rubbishing the Opposition criticism on the burden of mounting power bills in lifting water from projects, the CM said it is estimated that the government would have to spend Rs 4,992 crore per year to lift the water.
“Even if it crossed Rs 15,000 crore, the government is ready for it as the project benefits various sections of the people,” he said.
The Chief Minister said if Godavari receives excess water, there is no need of lifting water from Medigadda.
"We can draw the flood waters from Mid Manair dam (MMD) directly which will help reduce the burden of power bills," he added.
