TRS celebrate inauguration of Kaleshwaram project; BJP says it

Senior TRS MLA and former irrigation minister T Harish Rao Friday hailed the inauguration of the Kaleshwaram irrigation project in Telangana,saying it was as important as the formation of the separate state itself.

"Today, when Kaleshwaram project was inaugurated, is as important as the formation of Telangana.

In the combined state (undivided Andhra Pradesh), the names of projects were forgotten and came to be known as pending projects," he said, speaking at an event in Siddipet district.

The project would make 60 per cent of the state prosperous, said Harish Rao, who played a key role in its execution in the previous TRS government from 2014-2018.

"I feel it is the result of my good deeds in my previous birth that Chief Minister KCR ji gave me the opportunity to work in such a project," Harish Rao, a nephew of the CM, said.

Telangana ministers, TRS MLAs and other leaders across the state celebrated the inauguration of the project, distributed sweets and burst crackers at some places.

Special pujas were performed at various temples in the state.

TRS workers performed 'milk abhishekam' to photos of the Chief Minister in Hyderabad and others.

Meanwhile, state BJP president K Laxman reiterated that the project would not have been possible without the cooperation of the NDA government at the Centre and the BJP government in neighbouring Maharashtra.

"Chief Minister is frequently saying that 'I am the only achiever. I clearly say that we are also equally achievers for that project," he told reporters in Delhi.

Senior Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir alleged that the TRS goverment was misleading people on the project, saying that only tall claims were made without any water being available for various purposes.

The project was started at an estimated expenditure of Rs 35,000 crore (during the erstwhile regime of late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy), but shot up to Rs 1.02 lakh crore, he claimed.

"....KCR government,with its regime marked by commissions and kickbacks, have pegged the project cost at a whopping Rs 1.02 lakh crore.

The project is a paradise for contractors and not for farmers and it is a falsehood to claim that it will irrigate an additional 25 lakh acres," Shabbir said in a statement.

Alleging that the TRS and BJP had an unholy alliance in the recent Lok Sabha polls, he said the TRS president should 'beware of the saffron dragon' as BJP 'marginalised' regional parties."