BRS MLAs have urged Telangana Speaker Gaddam Prasad to allow them to explain the Kaleshwaram project through a detailed PowerPoint presentation in the upcoming session, even as the state government is gearing up to table the judicial commission report of retired justice PC Ghose on the controversial project.
The party has alleged that considerable misinformation was being spread about the project, and they want to set the record straight in the Assembly. The monsoon session of the Telangana Assembly will begin tomorrow, and its highlight will be the commission report on the Kaleshwaram Dam since former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has been squarely blamed for the ills plaguing the project.
BRS chief whip KP Vivekananda led the delegation to the Speaker, which included party MLA D Sudheer Reddy, to the Speaker and submitted a memorandum. KP Vivekananda said BRS MLAs should be given a chance to speak on the Kaleshwaram Commission’s report without their microphones being shut off. “Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is using the Assembly as a political platform to throw mud at the BRS. What will the government achieve through Assembly Sessions?” he asked. He said the BRS was ready for any sort of discussion in the Assembly. Interestingly, while the Kaleshwaram project was under construction, the then chief minister KCR had given a long PowerPoint presentation on the project and its benefits.
The delegation also alleged that the government deliberately leaked the report to the public before placing it in the Assembly. Both K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and the former irrigation minister T Harish Rao had approached the High Court through separate petitions to stop tabling of the Kaleshwaram report in the Assembly. However, the division bench refused to grant any interim stay.
The Congress government is hoping to corner the Opposition, both the BRS and the BJP, through the report and to fend off any attack due to the urea shortage or flood preparations. Since the former finance minister Etela Rajender, who has also been named in the commission’s report, is at present a BJP MLA, the treasury benches hope to corner them too in the discussion.