KCR appears before judicial panel probing 'irregularities' in Kaleshwaram project

    Hyderabad, Jun 11 (PTI) BRS president and former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday deposed before the judicial commission probing the alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project.
    The irrigation project was built during the previous BRS regime.
    Rao, who reached the commission's office at about 11 AM, left at 1 PM after his deposition.
    The one-man judicial commission is headed by former Supreme Court Judge P C Ghose.
    Several BRS leaders and workers assembled at the BRS Bhavan here, in view of KCR's appearance, where the commission's office is located. Police made elaborate security arrangements.
    The commission has questioned a number of engineers and other officials, especially of the irrigation department, in the last one year since its probe began.
    KCR's nephew and BRS MLA T Harish Rao, who was irrigation minister in the BRS government, appeared before the panel on June 9.
    BJP Lok Sabha member Eatala Rajender, who was finance minister in the BRS government, was also questioned by the commission on June 6.
    Speaking to reporters before KCR's appearance, his son and BRS Working President K T Rama Rao claimed that the notice issued to his father to appear before the panel is only harassment and political vendetta by the Congress government in Telangana. Truth will triumph in the end, he said.
    Launching a vitriolic attack on Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, Rao said people would teach him a lesson for harassing KCR "who made Telangana a top state in agriculture production, surpassing even Punjab and Haryana".
    The damage to the barrages of the Kaleshwaram project became a key issue during the 2023 assembly elections in the state.
    Telangana Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy recently said the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) has labelled the Kaleshwaram project, built at a cost of over Rs one lakh crore, to be "probably" the biggest man-made disaster in the country.
    Referring to the ruling Congress's criticism about some piers of the Medigadda barrage of the 'sinking' in 2023, Harish Rao had said the Kaleshwaram project comprises many other parts and that they are all intact.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)