Uttam Kumar Reddy says PRLiS only 35% Done

Hyderabad: Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday said former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, former irrigation minister T. Harish Rao, and the BRS, who were threatening to create a ruckus over the Palamuru Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme, will have much explaining to do to the people.

“When they go to address their public meetings, they should tell the people that their claim of completing 90 per cent of the project work at Rs 27,000 crore is hollow. This is because the BRS government in its detailed project report (DPR), had raised the project cost to Rs 55,086 crore,” the minister said.

“KCR said 90 per cent of work was completed, but their own project cost belies this fact as per their own DPR. Then, there are 30,000 acres still to be acquired which need another `6,000 crore for land acquisition for distributory channels alone not taking into account work and other costs,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said.

Addressing a press conference at the Secretariat, the irrigation minister said the reality was that only around 35 per cent of work had been completed, and the BRS government just ran one pump for a few hours to claim the project was nearly ready.

“After the Congress came to power, the government spent Rs 7,000 crore, completed installation of 11 pumps. How can KCR, who ran a government, make such false claims,” he asked.

Uttam Kumar Reddy also said the BRS leaders conspired in 2021 to slow down PRLIS. “First, they delayed a public hearing, then the irrigation department’s engineer-in-chief, C. Muralidhar, wrote to the project engineers to reduce the capacity of the project to 1 tmc ft, have only one pumphouse and reduce tunnel length. KCR and Harish must explain to the people why this was done and why they are trying to deflect responsibility now,” he said.

“Harish Rao,” Uttam Kumar Reddy said, “should be ashamed to make allegations that Rs 7,000 crore were diverted. We are not into taking commissions like them, and can provide accounts for every rupee spent on irrigation projects.”