Damning evidence against KCR and ex-ministers: Ghose panel report on KLIS to be tabled in spl Assembly session

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who chaired a meeting of the Cabinet at the Secretariat on Monday and accepted the report of the PC Ghose Commission, which had probed allegations of massive corruption and improper execution of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), said matter-of-factly that the state government would table the report at a special session of the Assembly soon and, after “seeking the opinion of every member” in the House” take action based on the findings of the panel.

According to official sources who were privy to a power-point presentation made by State Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on the summary of the judicial commission's report during the cabinet meeting, the Commission has found former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao responsible for the alleged irregularities in the construction of the project.

The Commission has observed in its report that Rao was directly and indirectly responsible for the irregularities in the project, right from its planning and construction to operation and maintenance of the barrages which are part of the project, sources said.

The Commission pointed fingers also at former irrigation minister T Harish Rao, a nephew of KCR. A committee of experts had advised against taking up the Kaleshwaram project, but the BRS regime had "intentionally suppressed" the report, they said. The sources said the officials had prepared a 60-page summary of the report, which runs into 665 pages.

The summary mentioned the names of KCR 32 times, Harish Rao 19 times and former minister Eatala Rajender five times. Rajender is now a BJP Lok Sabha member.

The report found Rajender, who was finance minister during the BRS regime, to be negligent, the sources said.

Briefing the press after the Cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister, apparently enthused by the damning evidence against former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and ex-ministers, said that since the report was prepared by an independent judicial commission, the question of resorting to politics of vengeance did not arise. Going by the findings of the Commission highlighted in the report, the government will initiate action against those who were involved in the “embezzlement of public money in the construction of the Kaleshwaram project.”