Congress, TD hampering Kaleshwaram, says TRS

Hyderabad: TRS MLC Karne Prabhakar on Monday said the Congress leaders in Telangana, with an aim to please the TD leadership and have a poll tie-up, have been trying to obstruct the Kaleshwaram irrigation project.

At a media interaction held in the city, Mr Prabhakar referred to a round table meeting organised to discuss on pros and cons of Kaleshwaram project on Sunday and said, “The Telangana joint action committee (TJAC) has become like a Congress JAC because most of the leaders who attended the meeting were from that party. They do not want government to complete Kaleshwaram project and provide irrigation facility for one crore acres of land and help farmers.”

“Mr Sarvey Satyanarayana has already issued a statement that the Congress and the TD would join hands for the 2019 elections. The Congress leaders are working as agents of the TD government in AP. The raising the issue of special status to AP and opposition to Kaleshwaram are part of this larger conspiracy against Telangana,” he alleged.

Mr Prabhakar rejected the allegations by Congress and TJAC leaders that the TRS government deliberately inflated the estimates of Kaleshwaram project by redesigning Pranahitha Chevella project to get commissions from contractors.

“Redesigning of projects is nothing new. It was done by previous governments also to meet changing needs. The Pranahitha projects was aimed at irrigating 16 lakh acres of farm land and the estimate was made at Rs 38,600 crore in 2007. We have now redesigned this as Kaleshwaram project to irrigate 36 lakh acres by spending over Rs 80,000 crore. The project estimates will definitely increase after 10 years and when irrigation target is made double. What is the big deal in this?” he questioned.