Pranahita project cost up by 110 per cent, says Congress Legislature Party

Hyderabad: The Congress Legislature Party on Saturday demanded that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao explain why and how the cost of Pranahita-Chevella project has increased by 110 per cent despite the project not being re-designed yet.

Demanding “complete clarity”, Congress leaders Shabbir Ali, Gutta Sukhender Reddy and Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy said that Mr Rao met the PM without having clarity on the project and sought national project status as well as funds for it and this appeared ridiculous.

Stating that its cost has risen from Rs 36,000 crore to Rs 75,000 crore, they sought to know the reasons behind the 110 per cent jump in cost. “Was it re-designed? If not, why the steep increase in cost?” they asked.

Mr Shabbir Ali alleged that the state government has released Rs 2,000 crore to some contractors in violation of set norms and procedures.

Alleging that the contractors were favoured by the state government as they funded the TRS during the GHMC elections, Mr Shabbir Ali demanded the government furnish details of project, works, packages and locations where the works were executed.

The Congress leaders also slammed the TRS government for shutting down the website on GOs “goir.telangana.gov.in, and said that the UPA regime introduced Right to Information Act in 2005 with the aim of empowering common man with complete information on government policies but TRS government doing exactly the opposite.

TRS Government has tried to end 11-year-old practice of having all GOs online on some flimsy reasons and said shutting down the website was a clear violation of RTI Act, they said.

Nagam sees scam in project
Bachao Telangana Mission convener and former minister Nagam Janardhan Reddy has lodged a complaint with Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma on mass-scale irregularities taking place at the behest of contractual firms in securing works under Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme.

In his complaint, Dr Reddy told Mr Sharma that the government has entrusted the Engineering Staff College of India to prepare detailed instructions for the bidders, general terms and conditions, but some of the key components missing in the notice are inviting tenders for the project, which leave scope for litigation and there will not be any competition among the bidders.

He wanted the government to explain how and who deleted several key clauses in the Tender notices and said it is suspected that everything was done at the behest of mega contractual firms with influential persons in government.