BJP Demands White Paper on Kaleshwaram

HYDERABAD: The BJP on Thursday demanded a White Paper from the state government on the Kaleshwaram project and the extent of farmland that was actually irrigated by water from it.

Taking objection to claims by ministers that the project had changed agriculture in the state, and provided irrigation to 19.63 lakh acres, senior BJP leader and former MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy said that the irrigation department on its website said that only 57,000 acres were provided irrigation from the project.

If the government claims are true that the Kaleshwaram project had provided irrigation to a large area, it should explain why the number of borewells in Telangana rose from around 18 lakhs in 2014 to 26 lakh, he said. “The government is making up numbers as it goes and is lying and must issue a white paper on all aspects of the Kaleshwaram project,” the BJP leader said.