Rahul Gandhi to visit Kaleshwaram project

Hyderabad, Nov (IANS) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will on Thursday visit the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project in Telangana as it is turning into a major issue during the campaign for this month's Assembly elections.

The Congress MP is likely to inspect Medigadda (Lakshmi) barrage, a part of Kaleshwaram project. 

Some piers of the barrage recently sunk in, prompting the Centre to send a team for the probe. 

Rahul Gandhi, who is currently campaigning in Telangana, will fly in a chopper to the barrage at Ambatpally village in Jayashankar Bhupalpally. 

The District Collector has accorded permission for the visit.

At the election rallies he addressed on Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi lashed out at KCR-led government for what he called Rs 1 lakh crore corruption in the project. 

Addressing an election rally at Kalwakurthy, Rahul Gandhi alleged that Chief Minister KCR kept inflating the cost of the project and even after looting Rs 1 lakh crore, did not build the project properly. 

He said the piers of the barrage were collapsing. 

The Congress leader also demanded KCR to inspect the project. 

At Shadnagar, Rahul Gandhi showcased 'Kaleshwaram ATM'. 

"This is Kaleshwaram ATM in which your CM KCR has looted one lakh crores of people's money and left the state in debt," he said. 

The Congress has been targeting KCR for turning Kaleshwaram into 'ATM'. 

Meanwhile, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and state minister K.T. Rama Rao has said that Rahul Gandhi can go to Kaleshwaram and learn from the world's largest lift irrigation project irrigating lakhs of acres.

Earlier on Wednesday, Telangana unit Congress president A. Revanth Reddy alleged that there was leakage in another barrage under Kaleshwaram project. 

There is a reported leakage of water at two gates of Annaram Saraswati barrage. 

The engineering officers alerted and attempts were made to stop the leaks by using sandbags temporarily. Currently, there is 5.71 TMCs of water. A gate has been lifted, releasing 2,357 cusecs of water downstream. 

The Annaram Saraswati Barrage was constructed with a water storage capacity of 10.87 TMC. 

However, officials have claimed that there is no threat to the barrage.

They appealed to people not to believe the rumours.