CAG to audit Kaleshwaram cost

Hyderabad: The Kaleshwaram project is back in the news. Following allegations and fresh complaints that the state government had not furnished full data pertaining to the expenditure incurred on the project, the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) has decided to take up fresh audits of the construction cost and the cost escalation of the project estimations.

Top sources said that a team of CAG officials would soon visit the project and meet the top irrigation officials of the state government and seek the details of the construction cost.

The government has been facing strong allegations that the prestigious Kaleshwaram Lift irrigation Scheme (KLIS) cost has been increased without any scientific study and the government suppressed the information about the project cost and utilization of the funds mobilized through the Kaleshwaram Corporation.

Sources said the government will be asked to furnish more details which would be examined along with the data that is available with the CAG. It is felt that even the data submitted to CAG had many variations. Though the project works began in 2016, the CAG so far could not publish the data of the project cost in its annual report as the state government failed to furnish necessary information.

Senior official of the auditing agency CAG said that it has become very difficult to verify compliance of the project expenditure by the government as well as the contract agency.

The CAG will also audit the irrigation facilities created under the Kaleshwaram project which was commissioned in 2018 and analyze whether the project helped to draw out viable results from it or not.

"A detailed report on the Kaleshwaram project expenditure and irregularities will be published in the 2022-2023 annual report," an official of CAG from Hyderabad told The Hans India.