HARISH SLAMS RAHUL OVER REMARK ON KCR

Irrigation minister T. Harish Rao on Wednesday retaliated against Congress president Rahul Gandhi through Twitter for levelling corruption allegations against Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao with regard to redesigning of irrigation projects.

The minister was addressing a public meeting at Saroornagar Stadium on Tuesday.

He advised the Congress president to be aware of his ignorant “scriptwriters” as they made him read out lies at public meetings without having minimum knowledge about how irrigation projects were executed.

Reacting to Mr Gandhi's allegation that the Chief Minister had increased the Kaleshwaram project cost to `1 lakh crore, Harish Rao said, “Your scriptwriters do not know that the Central Water Commission approved Kaleshwaram project cost `80,190 crore and not `1 lakh crore.”

Refuting the Congress president’s charge of the Chief Minister changing the name of Ambedkar irrigation project to Kaleshwaram project, the minister said, “Again your scriptwriters have misguided you. The Ambedkar Pranahitha project is still there, which will cater to the needs of 2 lakh acres of ayacut in Adilabad district.”

“During the Congress rule, in one year, even without starting project work, the Pranahita project cost was enhanced to `38,000 crore in 2008 and it was further increased to `40,000 crore by 2010. Can you explain why the cost of the project was increased even when work had not commenced?” he asked.