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”.
-copy-29e15046.jpeg?w=600)
