Irrigation projects in Telangana unscientific, says Uttam Kumar Reddy

Hyderabad: TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Monday slammed the TRS government’s “unscientific, irrational and illogical” construction of irrigation projects in the state. He announced that the Congress will give a PowerPoint presentation on irrigation projects at the Gandhi Bhavan on July 23.

“Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s dictatorial and unilateral decisions have put a whopping Rs 1.8 lakh-crore public money is at stake in irrigation, Water Grid and other projects. DPRs are a must for any project. But when I wrote to the Chief Secretary, Spl. CS and other officials seeking information on DPRs, no one responded,” he alleged.

Mr Reddy added, “I was told the CM instructs officials to do this and that without looking into the feasibility and cost effectiveness. It’s shocking that such huge public funds are being spent without proper DPRs on irrigation projects.” He also questioned the hike in the Palamur irrigation project from the original cost of Rs 30,000 crore to Rs 47,000 crore.

“Why has the project cost gone up? There is no answer from the government. Pranahita-Chevella project tenders have been called. There is gol maal (irregularities) in tenders too,” he alleged.

The TPCC chief said government actions were quite dangerous and it was time people stood up and questioned it.