Vice Chairman of the Telangana State Planning Board (TSPB) B. Vinod Kumar has charged Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti Bishweswar Tudu with making a false statement in Parliament and misleading the people of the country in the matter of national project status to Kaleshwaram by stating that the State government had never requested such status to the project.
Mr. Vinod Kumar said in a statement issued here on Saturday demanded that he change the statement made on the floor of Parliament and apologise for making a false statement or the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) would move a privilege motion against the Minister.
Mr. Vinod Kumar said that as Lok Sabha member from Karimnagar he had requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the floor of Parliament on July 20, 2018 to accord national status to either of the two major irrigation projects taken up by the Telangana Government — Kaleshwaram across Godavari and Palamuru-Rangareddy across Krishna. He asked the MoS verify this from Parliament records so that facts could come out before people.
While responding to his request, the then Minister of Water Resources (now Jal Shakti) Nitin Gadkari stated that it was the Centre’s policy not to accord national status to any irrigation project in the country from then on.
