Hyderabad: In a dramatic turn that could shake the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), party MLC and Telangana Jagruti president K Kavitha has accused her cousin, MLA and former irrigation minister T Harish Rao of orchestrating a plot to ‘frame’ her father and former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) in the PC Ghose commission of inquiry on the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project.
At a press conference held in Hyderabad on Monday, September 1, Kavitha also named party leader and former Rajya Sabha MP J Santosh Kumar and Megha Engineering and Infrastructure MD Krishna Reddy, for playing important roles in the alleged irregularities and putting the blame on the BRS supremo.
“KCR is being scapegoated. It was Harish Rao and Santosh Kumar who handled key aspects of the project. They accumulated huge assets blinding KCR,” she alleged, adding, the BRS leaders were conspiring with chief minister A Revanth Reddy.
Earlier in the day, CM Revanth announced a CBI inquiry into the alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project built during the previous BRS regime. Speaking in the Legislative Assembly at the end of a short discussion on the judicial commission’s report on Kaleshwaram project which concluded in the early hours of Monday, he said it is appropriate to hand over the probe to CBI as inter-state issues, different central and government departments and agencies are involved in the project.
“Today situation has come where CBI inquiry will be ordered on KCR. What difference does it make if the party continues to exist or not,” she asked.
She expressed confidence that her father will come out free from all charges. “After becoming the chief minister of Telangana, my father, KCR, spent 6-7 months researching on ways to improve irrigation water in the state. He never worked for money,” Kavitha said.
BRS calls PC Ghose Commission report ‘political drama’
The PC Ghose Commission of Inquiry on the Kaleshwaram project was tabled in the Legislative Assembly the previous evening.
Harish Rao had dubbed the report as a “political drama” saying, it was “neither impartial nor fair.”
“Justice Ghose’s report is a political drama just before the local body polls. Ghose did not give us notices under Section 8B of the Commissions of Inquiry Act. He did not follow appropriate rules to seek our response or provide an opportunity for cross-examination,” he had said.
The Siddipet MLA further claimed that the inquiry was conducted with “procedural lapses and state government resorted to political vendetta.”
“This was unfair, illogical, and politically motivated,” Rao alleged.
Soon after, BRS party members staged a walk out of the Legislative Assembly and dumped copies of the report into dustbins at Gun Park in Hyderabad.
