Congress Asks KTR To Make Water Grid's DPR Public

Leader of the Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir challenged Panchayat Raj Minister K Taraka Rama Rao to place the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the Water Grid project in public domain.

Addressing a press conference along with Deputy CLP leader in the Assembly T Jeevan Reddy in the Assembly premises on Monday, Shabbir Ali said that KTR's defensive reaction to the questions raised by by Congress over the Water Grid project was proof that large scale irregularities had taken place in the execution of the project.

He reiterated that the project was being executed without any DPR or survey. He sought to know how Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and KTR estimated the cost of the project at Rs 25,000 crores, and later escalated it to Rs 40,000 crores.

Similarly, on what basis did the TRS government conclude that it needed 1.26 lakh kms of pipes for the project, they asked.

"Were these figures given by Government engineers, independent agencies or private contractors?" Shabbir Ali demanded to know.

"Instead of giving answers to the simple questions raised by the Congress party, KTR started reacting in a panicky manner by leveling counter-allegations. He does not have any answers to the valid questions raised by us, and is therefore trying to divert the people's attention by raising non-issues," Shabbir Ali said, while claiming that the Congress had sufficient evidence to prove irregularities in the Water Grid project.

He demanded that the State Government convene an all party-meeting on the issue.

Shabbir Ali also furnished some reports of the Central Government which said that more than 72% of the households in Telangana were already connected with piped water supply (PWS). The Centre had also proposed to provide PWS to the uncovered population at a cost of Rs 10,156 crores. Of this, the Centre had proposed to provide Rs 6,105 crores, while the state's share was of just Rs 3,532 crores. After bifurcation, the Telangana government's contribution to complete the project would have been just Rs 1,695 crores.

However, instead of pursuing the ongoing schemes by spending the Rs 1,695 crores, the TRS government had came out with a proposal to waste Rs 40,000 crores of the public money, he alleged.

Quoting other reports on the status of piped water supply in the state, Jeevan Reddy challenged KTR to visit any area of the state, including KTR's own constituency Sircilla, to check the status of PWS. He said that the previous Congress regime had already provided piped water supply to almost 80% of the people without wasting any public money.

He reiterated that the government could provide safe drinking water to 10,000 villages by setting up purified water plants at a cost of Rs 1,000 crores. Instead of completing the pending and ongoing projects like Pranahita Chevella, the TRS government was focused on wasting public money, he alleged. (INN)