Has Telangana Congress president and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy succumbed to pressure from big contractors and decided to ignore the alleged massive corruption indulged in by the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government in the construction of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project on the Godavari River?
The answer appears to be yes, if one were to go by Revanth Reddy's latest comments during a media interaction in New Delhi.
He stated that the judicial inquiry ordered by the state government was confined to the engineering lapses in the construction of the Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla barrages, and nothing beyond that.
“It will not inquire into the escalation of costs during the previous BRS regime. If we focus on the issue of cost escalation of the projects, there will be no end. There will be no progress in the construction of any project and no project can be completed. We may not be in a position to pay bills for any project works if we order an inquiry into the corruption in the project construction,” he said.
A senior official called this a betrayal of the people.
He reminded that when Revanth was in the opposition, he and his party colleagues frequently criticized the indiscriminate escalation of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project cost from Rs 35,000 crore to over Rs 1 lakh crore.
In fact, even after coming to power, Revanth Reddy accused the BRS of looting crores of rupees in the Kaleshwaram project through cost escalation; yet, the barrages have sunk.
“But now, he has changed his tune,” the official criticized.
Perhaps the chief minister has compromised with the contractors who built the Kaleshwaram project and hence, decided to ignore the cost escalation issue, the official added.
