Muddying the waters in Telangana Premium

Opposition parties in Telangana use the Kaleshwaram project as poll issue to target the ruling BRS. Congress alleges misappropriation of ₹1 lakh crore. The BJP and the Congress launch anti-corruption campaigns in the State.

As the main political parties in Telangana gear up for the Assembly elections by arguing about a host of issues, the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) appears to be assuming centre stage, particularly after the sinking of a few piers of the Medigadda Barrage of the KLIP on October 21.

The opposition Congress has turned KLIP into a poll issue to target the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). It has alleged that the BRS has misappropriated ₹1 lakh crore from the project. Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited the area of the sunken pillars a few days ago and posted on X that the cracks exposed the corruption in the government. Earlier, at public meetings and during his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Mr. Gandhi targeted BRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and accused his family of using Kaleshwaram as an “ATM”.

The ruling party has hit back at the opposition by demanding to know how ₹1 lakh could have possibly been swindled given that expenditure on the project has not reached a six-digit figure. The BRS has also been referring to Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti Bishweswar Tudu’s statement in Parliament in July 2021 that “no instances of corruption in the execution of Kaleshwaram Project have come to the Centre’s notice”.

Apart from the sinking of piers of Medigadda Barrage on October 21, the November 1 report of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) expert team after its visit to the barrage site on October 23 and 24 has provided the Congress and the BJP ammunition before the election. In a letter to the State government, the NDSA said that it had found the barrage to be severely compromised, rendering it useless unless it is fully rehabilitated. While State Irrigation department officials said that the piers sank because the sand beneath them got washed away, the NDSA said that the piers sank due to a combination of factors related to planning, design, quality control, and operation and maintenance.

Much like in Karnataka, where it initiated a ‘PayCM’ campaign to allege that the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government was charging 40% commission on public works, the Congress has grabbed this moment to launch an anti-corruption campaign in Telangana too. In Karnataka, the party stuck ‘PayCM’ posters with a QR code that took users to a website called ‘40% Sarkara’. In Telangana, it has readied several dummies of ATMs to accuse the ruling BRS of having made easy money from the project. It has also published an 80-page booklet highlighting corruption in the project and is using it as material for electioneering. Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have also referred to the project to target the BRS.

Taken aback by the unexpected turn of events relating to the Kaleshwaram project such as the sinking of the piers on October 21 and leaks under the foundation later, the BRS has been on the defensive. Reacting to the critical NDSA report, a senior leader of the BRS said that the report was self-contradictory as it recommended “carrying out a detailed investigation to determine the causes of failure” while also blaming the design, build, operation and maintenance with just an “exterior examination” of the damage.

“The opposition parties had raised similar ruckus when flood waters submerged the Kannepally pump-house attached to the Medigadda Barrage and inundated the Annaram pump-house linked to the Annaram Barrage in July 2022. We had unprecedented floods then, and the highest-ever recorded flood level of 28.7 lakh cusecs in the Godavari river against the designed discharge capacity of 28.25 lakh cusecs. Within four months the two pump-houses were back in use at the costs of the work agency,” the BRS leader said.