Hyderabad: The state government has initiated the official process to act on the findings of the one-man Justice Ghose Commission of inquiry, which has gone into alleged irregularities and lapses in the construction of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) and submitted its report.
After a 15-month probe into the subsidence of some of the piers of the Medigadda barrage and damages caused to the Annaram and Sundilla barrages (part of KLIP), the Justice PC Ghose Commission submitted its report to the Telangana govt on Thursday. Justice (retd) Ghose handed over the bulky three-volume report to principal secretary, irrigation, Rahul Bojja at the Secretariat on the last date of the Commission’s extended term.
Earlier on Friday, Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao, Irrigation Secretary Prashant Patil and Joint Secretary Srinivas submitted the Justice Ghose Commission report to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy. The officials submitted the report to the Chief Minister in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, and Revenue and Information and Public Relations Minister P Srinivas Reddy.
Losing no time, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy constituted a 3-member Official Committee to vet the report of the Ghose Commission. The Committee, comprising state Irrigation Secretary Prashant Patil, Secretary to Law and GAD departments, will examine the report and submit its synopsis to the state Cabinet on August 4.
The KLIP, on which the erstwhile Bharat Rashtra Samithi government reportedly spent over Rs 1 lakh crore, created a big political storm ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls due to sinking of the piers of its barrages and damage caused to them. Then opposition parties had accused the BRS government of indulging in irregularities and large-scale corruption, going by its “design flaws”, “structural faults”, “maintenance issues”, “lack of quality control” and widespread “financial mismanagement”.
