CM Revanth Urged to Order Probe Into PRLIS Irregularities

Hyderabad:The Forum for Good Governance (FGG) has urged Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy to order an inquiry into what it described as “serious irregularities” in execution of works of the Palamuru Rangareddy lift irrigation scheme. Decisions related to where the project was to be located, taken by the then BRS government, were not based on technical evidence but were “political” in nature, the forum said in a letter.

It said the Engineering Staff College of India (ESCI) was asked to prepare the detailed project report (DPR) in August 2014, and the it proposed lifting water from Jurala project’s backwaters at an estimated cost of `32,200 crore. However, the then chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao wanted the project site shifted to Srisailam and directed ESCI to “urgently revise the DPR without going into technicalities and feasibility” and thus a political decision was taken, the forum alleged.

The FGG said that subsequently, the ESCI, without any field survey, revised the DPR in two weeks. It also suggested two alternatives for lifting the water from Srisailam. The Chief Minister during the meeting on 21-5-2015 approved a second alternative and also suggested reducing the height of the lift and directed to form a new reservoir at Karvena, the FGG said.

The forum alleged that work began without required permissions from the Centre, pumps were purchased at abnormally high rates, and “there appears to be a lot of kickbacks in purchase of pumps. A case was filed and pending in the Supreme Court regarding alleged kickbacks in purchase of pumps.”