Telangana: Contractors paid for no work, says Congress MLC

Hyderabad: Demanding a Vigilance and ED probe into all the major irrigation schemes in Khammam district wherein the government allegedly paid hundreds of crores of rupees to 10 contractors, senior Congress MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy on Monday demanded the government say how it could make payments for an abandoned project like the Dummugudem-Nagarjunasagar tailpond scheme.

In a letter to the Chief Minister , Mr Reddy said that successive governments are learnt to have paid Rs 520 crore to 10 contractor firms to take up 10 packages under Dummugudem tailpond scheme. After the TRS came to power in 2014, it abandoned the project  saying that there cannot be transfer of waters from one basin to another.

However, instead of the government refusing payment to contractors who have not done any work, it had paid excess amounts in order to prevent the firms from moving courts for compensation.

Mr Reddy said that there have been large-scale and unjustified payments to avoid litigation despite the contractors not taking up any work. He said he will be getting complete details of the payments made by the government through the RTI Act.

The MLC said that there were large-scale irregularities committed in other major irrigation schemes Khammam district like Seetharama Lift Irrigation Project and Rajiv Sagar Lift scheme.