'KCR Liable for Kaleshwaram Lapses'

Panel flags irregularities in project, blames former CM for barrage collapse; action expected

- EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Hyderabad

If sources are to be believed, the report submitted by the PC Ghose Commission of Inquiry holds BRS president and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao "directly and vicariously accountable" for irregularities in the planning, execution, completion, and operation and maintenance (O&M) of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS).

According to highly placed sources, the Commission reportedly found that the project was taken up without Cabinet approval and fixed responsibility on the then irrigation minister T Harish Rao and then finance minister Eatala Rajender. It also recommended the severest legal action against six irrigation engineers for deliberately misleading the panel and for giving false depositions.

The report noted that then engineer-in-chief, C Muralidhar Rao, recently held by the ACB, misrepresented facts to the Central Water Commission.