HYDERABAD: Finance minister T. Harish Rao came down heavily on Union jal shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat for levelling, on Wednesday. 'wild allegations' of corruption against the Telangana government on the Kaleshwaram project.
Speaking to the media at the TRSLP office on the Legislative Assembly premises on Thursday, Harish Rao said that the restoration works were underway and the pump houses of the Kaleshwaram project would be restored by September end and water would be supplied for rabi crops as usual.
He stated that Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (MEIL), the agency which constructed the project, would bear the restoration costs under five-year warranty clause. Harish Rao demanded that Shekhawat answer why MEIL was given the Polavaram project contract in AP, which was a national project executed by the Centre, and in BJP-ruled states like Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh etc., if it lacked technical expertise.
Harish Rao said that Union ministers and BJP leaders were levelling baseless charges against the Telangana government on Kaleshwaram project only because Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was questioning the wrongdoings of the Modi government at the Centre.
The minister said the Kaleshwaram project was not about two pump houses which were submerged but it about having hundreds of components such as three barrages, 16 reservoirs, 21 pump houses, 98 kilometres of delivery pipes, 203 kilometres of tunnels and several huge power substations.
"Just two pump houses were submerged and the Opposition leaders are projecting as if the entire Kaleshwaram project got submerged and deriving sadistic pleasure," he added.
