Kaleshwaram Commission to conduct hearing from September 19

Hyderabad, Sep 18 (IANS) The Kaleshwaram Commission enquiring into the alleged irregularities in the construction of three barrages of the Kaleshwaram project, will hold its next hearing from Thursday in Hyderabad.

Retired judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose, who is heading the Kaleshwaram Commission, is scheduled to arrive in Hyderabad on Wednesday evening.

He will conduct the hearing in the matters relating to the alleged irregularities in the construction of Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla barrages by the former Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government in the state.

The panel will continue recording the statements of witnesses and their cross-examination.

The panel, constituted by the Congress government after it came to power in Telangana, began its probe in April into the alleged irregularities in the construction of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme on the Godavari River.

The commission has been recording the statements of the officials and engineers of the state irrigation department on the damages caused to the Medigadda barrage on October 22 last year.

It is also looking into the technical problems in two other barrages – Annaram and Sundilla.

Justice Ghose has already visited the three barrages for an on-the-spot assessment.

The state’s Congress government in March this year ordered a judicial enquiry into the sinking of piers of Medigadda barrage and leakages in Sundilla and Annaram barrages.

It has also asked the panel to look into the financial aspect of the project and technical flaws, if any, like designs, planning and execution in the irrigation project built by the BRS government.

The Congress party has alleged large-scale irregularities in the construction of the irrigation project.

During the previous hearing of the commission in July, Advisor to the Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS) Vedire Sriram had made a presentation and submitted information on various aspects pertaining to the project.

He had submitted detailed information on the location of head works (main barrage) of initially planned Pranahita-Chevella project at Tummidihatti; availability of water at 75 per cent dependability there; the reasons cited by the then state government for changing the location to Medigadda; what was the view of Central Water Commission and facts about the water availability.

The advisor told the panel that under the guise of non-availability of water by putting the onus wrongly on the Central Water Commission, the BRS government had re-engineered the project and moved it to a new location, only to serve some unknown interests, and in the process put the public interests at risk.

The commission was told that the shifting of location resulted in a huge jump in the project’s cost by Rs 80,000 crore, but the increase in the command area is less than 2 lakh acres.

While Pranahita-Chevella was designed to irrigate 16.4 lakh acres, Kaleshwaram, as per the detailed project report, will cater to 18.25 lakh acres.

Seven retired and serving officers, including former chief secretaries of irrigation and finance departments had also appeared before the commission in July.

They were all asked to file affidavits on the developments during their tenure in the irrigation and finance departments.