Harish Rao Vows to Expose Congress 'Lies' on Kaleshwaram Before Inquiry Panel

Harish Rao, in a clear reference to former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, made it clear that “a man who was not afraid to give up his life for Telangana” would go before the commission on June 11. Harish Rao is scheduled to appear before the commission on June 9.

He was speaking at a presentation, titled Kaleshwaram Project: Countering False Propaganda with Facts, at Telangana Bhavan, the BRS headquarters. Harish Rao said the Congress and its government had levelled various charges against the BRS on the Kaleshwaram project and set up various vigilance inquiries and a judicial commission to “try and prove its allegations.”

During his nearly hour-long presentation to party leaders including current and former MPs, MLAs, and MLCs, Harish Rao provided details showing excerpts of official documents related to the project, the reasons for the redesign of the project, addressed allegations on cost escalation, and how it is the Kaleshwaram project that made bumper paddy crops possible in Telangana.

Making it clear that the BRS did not place much stock on the report from the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) on the project’s Medigadda barrage, and the ones at Annaram, and Sundilla, Harish Rao said the NDSA committee was headed by Chandrashekar Aiyar, under whose leadership of the Polavaram Project Authority, the project’s diaphragm and guide walls were washed away, and the coffer dam developed leaks.

“He gave the report on Kaleshwaram barrages, but is silent on how the project he headed had far more serious problems four years ago. Why did the NDSA not go to Polavaram in all this time? Why did it rush to Medigadda in two days after two piers developed cracks? The fact is NDSA has become a ‘pocket agency’ of the BJP government at the Centre like the ED and the CBI,” Harish Rao said.

Harish Rao said the Kaleshwaram project had every statutory and required permissions and clearances, every required test was done by experts. “The fact that Revanth Reddy says he will get 30 tmc ft of Godavari water to Hyderabad, and his launching the Gandamalla reservoir yesterday, proves that the Kaleshwaram project is intact. All the Goebbelsian campaigns of the Congress will be shattered and exposed by BRS before the commission,” he said.