BJP seeks permission to visit Kaleshwaram project

HYDERABAD: BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Sunday that a BJP delegation with party MPs, MLAs and irrigation experts wanted to visit the Kaleshwaram irrigation project in the first week of September, and sought permission for the same. "We do not intend to politicise the issue," he said.

Sanjay wrote to Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar seeking permission to visit the
project site. He said the delegation would file their questions in advance
as it might help the officials brief them better at the project site.

The delegation would have fewer than 30 persons, Sanjay said, and wanted
permission to the media to accompany the team. He wanted senior officials of
the irrigation department and the contractors to be present to reply to the
delegation's questions.

He said the BJP state leadership was "particularly alarmed and deeply
concerned" about the damage to the project's pump houses. "We are depending
on media reports, where information is not comprehensive and it is limited
to the contrac  tor's version or the government's claims," Sanjay opined.

"Kaleshwaram is a mega irrigation project constructed with several thousands
of crores of rupees which belongs to the public," he said. "As a responsible
political party, after much thought we decided to visit the Kaleshwaram
irrigation project mainly to allay our fears and our anxieties and also the
various doubts and suspicions that are circulating in public domain."

He said political parties have previously visited projects sites including
in 1998 when turbines in the Srisailam project were damaged and between
2004-2009 when there were allegations of corruption in Jalayagnam projects.