KLIS Probe: Jus. Ghose to Return to City Towards Month-End

Hyderabad: The Justice P.C. Ghose commission of inquiry into the Kaleshwaram project barrages is unlikely to call any more witnesses for questioning, indicating that the final phase of work, that of preparing its report, is all that the commission will now focus on.

Though agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, then a member of a Cabinet sub-committee set up to look into the Kaleshwaram project in the then BRS government, is learnt to have written a letter to the commission countering BJP MP Etala Rajendar’s claim before the commission that the then state Cabinet had approved all decisions about the project, the commission was not expected to call him to substantiate his claim.

Rajendar was the first of the three from the then BRS cabinet to be called for questioning by the commission. His appearance was followed by that of former irrigation minister T. Harish Rao, and finally on June 11 by former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

The commission’s term is scheduled to conclude on July 31 when the seventh extension it received after it was set up in March 2024 comes to an end. It is expected that Justice Ghose, who left for Kolkata on Friday, would be working on writing the report there and return towards the end of the month to Hyderabad to give it the finishing touches and submit it to the government much before the July 31 deadline.

While the government awaits the report from Justice Ghose, uncertainty over its readiness to take action on 40 plus current and former engineers of the irrigation department who have been found guilty of omissions and commissions that resulted in damages to varying degrees to the Kaleshwaram project’s barrages at Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla.

The engineers were found guilty by the Vigilance & Enforcement wing, which recommended actions including termination of service, filing of criminal charges and holding back pensions, among other actions. This was the first investigation ordered by the Congress government into the Kaleshwaram project, and nearly three months later, the report was submitted and also approved by the Vigilance Commission. The government is yet to spell out its next steps to hold individuals, whose mistakes resulted in damage to the barrage, accountable.