The Forum for Good Governance alleged that ads for the Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation project and the TRS rebranding were misuse of taxpayer money.
Forum for Good Governance (FGG) President M Padmanabha Reddy has written a letter to Telangana Governor Jishnu Dev Varma requesting an inquiry into the alleged misuse of taxpayers' money for political gains.
In his letter, he criticised the execution of the Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation project. The main points he made are as under:
To provide drinking water and irrigation to the parched lands of southern Telangana, the Palamuru-Rangareddy lift irrigation project was initiated in June 2015, with an estimated cost of Rs 32,000 crore. The project was intended to be completed within 48 months, by mid-2019. However, construction was hastily started without obtaining the necessary permissions from the Government of India.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) raised serious objections, and imposed a Rs 920 crore fine on the Telangana government for the lapses. "Telangana has made it a habit to undertake project construction without seeking environmental clearances, by claiming that the work is in public interest," the Tribunal observed.
Andhra Pradesh had also filed a case in the Supreme Court alleging that the project was lifting more water than allotted. And there were serious allegations of corruption throughout the construction. Numerous cases were also filed in the High Court by individuals seeking compensation for land acquired for the project, leaving the initiative in a state of uncertainty.
By November 2023, approximately Rs 30,000 crore had been spent, completing about 70% of the work. Due to delays, the Chief Engineer submitted a proposal to revise the project estimate from Rs 32,000 crore to Rs 50,000 crore.
The then Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao then inaugurated the fresh legs of the project at Narlapoor on September 16, 2023, and again at Kollapur the following day - two separate inaugurations for a half-completed project, held just weeks before the Assembly elections.
Also, for the inauguration ceremonies, advertisements were published in 13 Telugu, 7 English, 3 Hindi, 6 Urdu and 2 Marathi newspapers, in addition to 296 small newspapers and 322 magazines. A total of Rs 22,13,55,038 was spent on publicity alone.
FGG raised objections on several counts:
- The project is still under litigation, casting doubt on its completion.
- Spending Rs 22.14 crore on inaugurating an incomplete and legally disputed project amounts to misuse of power and squandering of public funds.
- The timing of the inaugurations, just ahead of the Assembly elections, indicates a political motive.
The FGG president said, "Your Excellency, the above case is not an isolated incident. In 2022, the ruling TRS was rebranded as the BRS, a national party. To gain all-India recognition, extensive publicity was carried out under the guise of welfare programs. Rs 244.17 crore was spent for print media ads alone. These advertisements appeared in Malayalam, Tamil, Marathi, Oriya, Gujarati, Bengali and Punjabi newspapers, as well as in numerous magazines and regional publications. Hardly any media outlet in the country was left out."
The FGG said that it had reason to believe that the Telangana government had misused taxpayers' money to promote the newly formed BRS on a national level purely for political gain. It requested the Governor to order a detailed inquiry into the funds spent on both the inauguration of the incomplete project and the large-scale publicity campaign during 2023-24, and that action be taken against those responsible for the misuse of public funds.