Raising the pitch against the alleged lapses that went into the award of contracts under the much publicised Palamuru - Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project, the Opposition parties in the State have demanded that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi Government release a white paper on the processes adopted from tendering stage to execution.
The Opposition parties including the Congress, the Telugu Desam Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party wanted the Government to cancel the tenders awarded “arbitrarily” to contractors favoured by the Government and order a judicial inquiry into the process followed.
Steps should be initiated to ensure that the design suggested by irrigation engineers is adopted for the project and the execution should commence with acquisition of land under the provisions of Land Acquisition Act 2013, they said.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, party legislator D.K. Aruna, TDP Telangana working president A. Revanth Reddy, Nagam Janardhan Reddy of the BJP and others participated in a round-table meeting organised by the TPCC here on Monday.
Mr. Uttam Kumar Reddy charged the Government with spreading false propaganda on the project which was designed during the Congress regime of the erstwhile united State.
The TRS Government which took over subsequently had decided to “arbitrarily change the design of the old projects and shelved the ongoing projects in the lure of commissions”.
Reiterating that the Congress was not against taking up work on the projects, he accused the TRS Government of hiding facts like power requirement estimated to cost around ₹ 1,600 crore a year, capital costs, burden on account of the loans mobilised on commercial terms from different banks relating to the proposed lift irrigation scheme.
Ms. Aruna, who made a PowerPoint presentation about the project, alleged that the Government had shelved the projects initiated by the previous Government with an apprehension that the credit would go to the Congress.
The ruling party on its part was resorting to “cheap politics” casting aspersions on the Congress for political gains.
Mr. Revanth Reddy ridiculed Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s claims on providing irrigation to one crore acres of land claiming that the socio-economic survey report released by the Government a couple of years ago showed that water was already being provided to 50 lakh acres and another 38,000 acres was ready to come under the plough.
The State Government, in its hurry to award work to selected contractors, did not follow procedures like obtaining detailed project reports, commencement of land acquisition process and other formalities which were mandatory for taking up major projects.
