KCR Summoned By Judicial Commission On Kaleshwaram Irrigation Project

The judicial commission investigating alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project in Telangana has summoned BRS president and former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to appear before it as part of its ongoing inquiry. The notices have been received, BRS sources said on Tuesday.

The commission, probing the damage to the barrages of the project, is understood to have also issued notices to BRS MLA T Harish Rao and incumbent BJP MP Eatala Rajender, directing the leaders to appear before it next month.

Harish Rao, nephew of KCR, had served as irrigation minister during the previous BRS regime, while Rajender was also a minister in the BRS government before joining the BJP in 2021.

Hitting out at the Congress government, BRS MLC K Kavitha alleged that the notice issued to KCR is part of a "political conspiracy" to tarnish his image. The Kaleshwaram project was built for the welfare of farmers and future generations and not for politics, she said in a post on X.

KCR has devoted his life to Telangana, transforming barren lands into fields of prosperity, but he is now being targeted by a "visionless regime," she said. "No vindictive Govt can diminish his legacy. The truth will prevail, and history will remember who stood for the people and who tried to bring them down."

BRS MLA Vemula Prashant Reddy and several other party leaders hit out at the Congress government over the notices issued to KCR.

The damage to the barrages of the Kaleshwaram project was a major issue during the 2023 assembly elections in the state.

Telangana Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy recently announced that the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) has labelled the Kaleshwaram project, built at a cost of over Rs one lakh crore, to be "probably" the biggest man-made disaster in the country.

Noting that the judicial commission is already probing the issue, Mr Reddy had said accountability would be fixed and action taken as per the panel's report.

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