Shekhawat says KLIS is KCR’S illegitimate child

Says project lacks environmental clearances

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday came under intense fire over the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) from Union jal shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat who called the project an ‘illegitimate child of KCR’.

Shekhawat said the TRS government’s demand that Kaleshwaram be declared a national project was like asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to adopt ‘the illegitimate child of KCR.” He added, “How can this be” and said “The name of the father should be of the one who committed the sin.”

Shekhawat was addressing a public meeting at Vangapalli near Yadadri, marking the launch of the third phase of BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s Praja Sangrama Yatra. Shekhawat said the Kaleshwaram project’s pump houses were under water, adding that the project needed to be visited. It was not planned properly, and there were engineering faults, and investments in the project were not proper, he said.

Shekhawat also said the project did not have proper environmental clearances. It was taken up only as a money-making machine, which was turned into a milch cow, he said.

“To cover up its failures and illegal activities, the TRS government wants to put the entire responsibility (of the project) on the government of India,” he said.

He said the promises of the TRS have not translated

into benefits for the people of the state. Charging the Chief Minister and his family with corruption,

Shekhawat said, “A BJP government must be elected here to send them to prison for their corruption.”

— BY ARRANGEMENT Union minister of Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat addresses public meeting for the 3rd phase of padyatra at Vangapalli near Yadagiri Gutta on Tuesday.

— DC TRS leader V. Mohan Reddy and advocate Rachana Reddy join the BJP in the presence of Union minister Gajendra Shekhawat and BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar at Yadadri on Tuesday.