Rahul Gandhi visits Medigadda barrage, alleges poor quality of construction

WARANGAL: Intensifying the Congress’ focus on the alleged quality issues in the construction of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao’s prestigious Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) project, former AICC president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday inspected the Medigadda barrage, where some of the pillars sank.

Accompanied by Telangana state Congress president A. Revanth Reddy and engineering officials of the irrigation department, Rahul Gandhi inspected the damaged pillars of the Medigadda barrage. He took photographs of the project and its damaged portions at Ambatipally village in Mahadevpur mandal of Jayashankar Bhupalpally district on Thursday.

Initially, police officials denied permission for Congress leaders to inspect the barrage, but later they allowed six members to check the barrage.

Speaking at a meeting later, Rahul Gandhi said he visited the Medigadda barrage to see how the BRS government looted the public in the name of the Kaleshwaram project.

“K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his family members are using the Kaleshwaram project as their personal ATM to plunder the people of Telangana. Under the rule of the BRS government, several lakh rupees of Telangana state were looted,” alleged Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress leader alleged that cracks have been developed in multiple pillars because of the poor construction quality of the barrage which is a part of the corruption-ridden Kaleshwaram project.

“When the projects which are constructed investing more than Rs 1 lakh crore of public money are collapsing one after the other, why Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao is not conducting a review meeting” Why Union home minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are not directing investigative agencies to conduct an inquiry,” Rahul Gandhi questioned.

He asked the people to compare the projects constructed by the Congress government such as SRSP, Priyadarshini Jurala, Nagarjuna Sagar and Singuru projects with the Kaleshwaram projects which are sinking and leakages taking place just within one year of their completion.

The Congress leader said all the money robbed by Chandrashekar Rao will be distributed to people after the Congress comes to power in the state.

Terming the upcoming elections as a battle between the Dorala Telangana (feudal Telangana) — headed by the Chandrasekhar Rao — and Prajala Telangana (people’s Telangana) led by the Congress, Rahul Gandhi said the Congress will pay Rs 2,500 a month to women under the Mahalakshmi scheme and women will be allowed to travel free in the RTC buses.

Thanks to Modi and Chandrashekar Rao, Rahul Gandhi said people were paying Rs 1,200 per gas cylinder. But after the formation of the Congress government, he said the price of the gas cylinder will be reduced to Rs.500.

Rahul Gandhi once again accused the BJP, BRS and the MIM of colluding with each other to fight the Congress in the coming elections for looting more public money. “To teach lessons to such parties, people should elect Congress party for the formation of the people’s government in the Telangana state,” he appealed.

A large number of women from surrounding villages thronged to the meeting to see Rahul Gandhi. However, Rahul Gandhi, who reached Amabatipally village sharply at around 8.15 am, completed his speech and left to inspect the Medigadda barrage. When people followed Rahul Gandhi towards the barrage, police officials interrupted them and the Congress leaders.

After negotiations, police officials allowed only six members, which included Rahul Gandhi, TPCC president Revanth Reddy, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Manthani MLA D.Sridhar Babu and engineering officials of irrigation department to inspect the barrage.

The people, who came to see Rahul Gandhi, indulged in a heated argument with them and staged a dharna on the road along with the Congress leaders raising slogans against the BRS government holding placards. Later, the police officials brought the situation under control by arresting the Congress leaders.