Sharmila complains to CAG about irregularities in Kaleshwaram Project

Hyderabad: Continuing her tirade against the alleged massive irregularities in Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, YSR Telangana Party chief Y.S. Sharmila on Friday met Comptroller and Auditor General, Girija Prasad Murmu, in New Delhi.

She filed a complaint against the "corruption" and "embezzlement of funds" in the project benefiting TRS leaders and select contractors. She demanded that strict action be taken immediately, and investigation be initiated into the project that cost the exchequer around Rs 1.20 lakh crores.

Sharmila told reporters that YSR Telangana Party has been waging a battle against Chief Minister KCR and his "engineering of corruption" in Kaleshwaram project. The party recently filed a complaint with the CBI.

"In this juncture, we already spoke to the CBI and filed a complaint recently. The CAG assured her that they will constitute an independent committee to look into this and ascertain things."

The daughter of former (undivided) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy said that Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, that was originally named as Pranahita Chevella, was touted to be the lifeline of the state with irrigation potential of over 12 lakh acres, and an expenditure of Rs 38,500 crore. She alleged that after KCR came to power, he has changed the contours of the project to suit his vested interests and altered the entire structure of the project.

"The designs were changed and so was the name to Kaleshwaram Project. Worse is the project cost hiked to over a lakh crore from Rs 40,000 crore," she said, adding one contractor had radically gained out of this latest connivance, and while these were extensively reported and opposed in media as well as by the experts, KCR did not care at all, and behaved like an engineer himself.

"It is not a secret that the corruption of such astronomical standards is known across the state. The compound value of the corruption that puts together falsified accounts, estimates with inflated numbers that are disproportionate with the true value of works, embezzlement of funds and above all the compromise in quality that resulted in the massive destruction of pumphouses, all put together is valued over and above one lakh crore today. This is the taxpayer's money and action should be taken against KCR and the contractors for this."

She said Central government's top funding institutions loaned money to the project, where the outcomes and benefits were inflated, and so were the costs, while experts have rebuffed, time and again, the "fairy-tale figures" served by KCR, such as irrigation to more than 18 lakh acres and yield increase by 900 times. Almost Rs 97,449 crore were disbursed by PFC, REC Ltd, PNB Consortium, NABARD, UBI Consortium and BoB.

"We have always demanded that strict action be initiated against the Chief Minister and the contractors, and a thorough investigation be launched on a war footing, as this is no more a state issue when Rs 1.20 lakh crores, and scores of central funding institutions and other Central PSUs are involved,"she said, reminding that the Congress and BJP have grossly failed in taking up this aspect till date, though the Central ministers have time and again pointed at the mammoth corruption.