Hyderabad: Telangana state BJP Vice-President and former MLA NVSS Prabhakar today accused former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of attempting to distance himself from the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) by placing the blame on the engineers who appeared before the P C Ghose Commission. This commission is investigating irregularities and structural failures at the Medigadda barrage, as well as damage at the Annaram and Sundilla barrages. Prabhakar claimed that the decision to change the project site to Medigadda was purely political and that this change was ratified by the cabinet.

Addressing the media on Sunday, Prabhakar said that the BJP would await the final report from the P.C. Ghose Commission, emphasizing that there is no question of letting the leaders involved in KLIP irregularities off the hook. He reiterated the call for a CBI inquiry to get to the truth.

Prabhakar accused BRS party chief and former Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao of ignoring warnings from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). Rather than correcting the mistakes in the projects, KCR has allowed the irrigation experts to proceed with KLIP, resulting in significant losses. He criticized KCR for telling the Ghose Commission that the cabinet had granted permission based on the recommendations of irrigation experts. As the head of government, KCR should have taken moral responsibility for his mistakes instead of placing the blame on his cabinet and the irrigation experts, Prabhakar alleged.

Prabhakar noted that the Kaleshwaram project’s location shifted from Tummadihatti to Medigadda. He mentioned that the project work at Tummadihatti was initiated by the Congress government before the BRS came to power. However, the BRS changed the location and increased the project estimation costs by two to three times without calling for tenders for the Medigadda barrage works. He questioned KCR about who was responsible for the shrinkage of columns in the barrage, the non-functioning of the pump motors, and the breaches in the canals.

Prabhakar accused the state Congress government of Revanth Reddy, of failing to uphold the constitution by not conducting local body elections even after 18 months in power. He demanded that the Congress government announce a schedule for local body elections immediately.