Congress demands water project report from KTR

Telangana Congress leaders on Monday continued their attack on the state government over the Water Grid Scheme and demanded the concerned minister, K.T. Rama Rao, to make the DPR (Detailed Project Report) public so that their apprehensions regarding implementation of the scheme could be addressed.

Speaking to the media, Leader of Opposition in Council, Md Shabbir Ali and senior Congress legislator T. Jeevan Reddy said Mr K.T. Rama Rao’s defensive reaction on questions raised by the Congress over the Water Grid project was proof that large-scale irregularities had already taken place.

They reiterated that the project was being executed without any DPR or survey and sought to know how Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr K.T. Rama Rao had estimated the project cost to be `25,000 crore, which they later escalated to `40,000 crore.

They also asked on what basis the TRS government concluded that it needed 1.26 lakh km of pipelines for the project. “Were these given by government engineers, independent agencies or private contractors?” they said.

They pointed out that Mr Rama Rao, instead of giving clarifications started leveling counter allegations. They said that it was time for the government to convene an all-party meeting and convince the leaders on the issues being raised.

The leaders also showed a copy of a Union government report that estimated the total drinking water needs in the country, wherein it was stated that more than 72 per cent of households in TS were already connected with piped water supply.

Mr Jeevan Reddy said that the previous Congress regime had already provided piped water to almost 80 per cent of the people without wasting any public money.