Hyderabad: BJP welcomes inauguration of Kaleshwaram project

Hyderabad: BJP national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao on Friday welcomed the inauguration of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) under the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekara Rao. He, however, urged the Chief Minister to stop the smear campaign against the BJP-led government at the Centre.

Addressing the media here, he said that BJP had been advocating utilisation of Godavari River waters for decades. BJP former State president Ch Vidya Sagar Rao and senior leader Prof Seshagiri Rao had made an extensive study and mounted pressure on successive State governments of the day on the utilisation of Godavari waters in Telangana. Against this backdrop, the BJP has wholeheartedly welcomed the inauguration of the KLIP as a step forward in providing the much-needed relief to the farmers in upland areas in the State.

Demanding that KCR make the sources of investments and investment plans for the KLIP public, the BJP leaders said it would help in a productive discussion to bring out the key role played by the Centre in the construction of the project. Muralidhar Rao warned, "the TRS and its chief continuing with a motivated campaign against BJP and the Centre would only harm them." Further, he also asked the Chief Minister to disclose details about cost escalations of the KLIP. Failing which, "the BJP will expose the TRS and its misgovernance," he added.

He said "the Centre had actively cooperated, actively supported and actively given everything within its means for the KLIP. Without the proactive cooperation of the Centre and the BJP government in Maharashtra, it would not have been possible for the construction of the KLIP within such a short span of time, he pointed out, he said.

In regard to the national status of the KLIP, he said "it seems there was no good communication between the former Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. KLIP was never part of the discussion during the bifurcation, or even during the State Irrigation Minister's discussion with the Centre," he said.