However, Rajendar later told reporters that the decision for the redesigning, or locating of the barrages was first taken by then chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, and later endorsed by the Cabinet.
Hyderabad: BRS government finance minister Etala Rajendar, currently a BJP MP, on Friday said the decision to locate the three Kaleshwaram project barrages at Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla, was collectively taken by the then state Cabinet. Rajendar was responding to questions from Justice P.C. Ghose, who is heading the commission of inquiry on the Kaleshwaram project barrages on Friday.
However, Rajendar later told reporters that the decision for the redesigning, or locating of the barrages was first taken by then chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, and later endorsed by the Cabinet.
In response to multiple questions from media persons on whether he attempted – while answering questions from the commission — to try to ensure the former chief minister gets a clean chit on the decision-making process, Rajendar appeared to take recourse to political waltzing and said: “KCR took the decisions about the project. KCR is boss, but one person cannot make it happen without a Cabinet decision. KCR claimed hundreds of times that he was the creator of Kaleshwaram project. While technical committees gave their reports, KCR took the decisions, and the Cabinet approved them.”
Continuing in the same vein, Rajendar said that the Congress government must ensure that the Ghose commission report was made public once it was submitted and not hide it like it had other reports on investigations into various decisions taken by the previous BRS government. “The report must be made public and action must be taken against those found guilty,” Rajendar demanded.
Earlier, while facing Justice Ghose, Rajendar said a three-member Cabinet sub-committee headed by the then irrigation minister T. Harish Rao, with the then R&B minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, and himself as finance minister, signed off on the ‘redesign’ of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (KLIS) after a thorough discussion with a technical and expert committee’s report on the need to shift the project’s main barrage’s location from Tummidihatti to Medigadda.
To pointed questions from Justice Ghose as to who took the final decision on approving the project or the barrage locations, Rajendar who, as was with the case with all others questioned before him by the commission was administered an oath that he would speak the truth and nothing but the truth, maintained it was the Cabinet that approved the project. Rajendar was witness no. 113 in the ongoing probe by the commission.
Responding to questions on the project’s finances, Rajendar said all this was handled by the Kaleshwaram Irrigation Project Corporation Limited, a special purpose vehicle set up by the then government. He said the finance department had little to do with how the funds were managed by the irrigation department, which had its own accounts and audit wings.
