Irrigation Projects In Telangana A Scam: Congress

Seeking detailed reports on the Palamaru and Kaleshwaram irrigation projects, the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) alleged that these projects were scams waiting to be uncovered.

TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy addressed a letter to the Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma pointing out that the irrigation projects were being taken up in a completely ad hoc, arbitrary, unscientific and irrational manner.

The cumulative costs for the projects had escalated from Rs 35,200 crores to Rs 47,500 crores even before the work had begun, he said, and demanded to know the detailed cost estimates and changes in those, and the changes in the engineering parameters of the irrigation projects since the original design.

Reddy said that reservoirs weren't a necessity for lift irrigation projects, and that thousands of crores could be saved if sumps or intake wells were used instead.

He also alleged that the government was selling its lands and "mortgaging" the future of the State by borrowing huge sums of debts to raise funds for its schemes, while ignoring well-established government norms.

He further alleged that the government was forcibly acquiring land from farmers and farm labourers without compensating them fairly. He demanded of the government that all procedures and R&R benefits be followed as per the Land Acquisition Act 2013 wherever land was being acquired.