The Finance Minister of Telangana, T. Harish Rao, has accused Union ministers of spreading false propaganda regarding the Kaleshwaram project. Rao claims that the State government had submitted a proposal for national project status, but due to political vengeance, the Centre did not respond to repeated pleas. He took to Twitter to counter the reply by Union Minister Bishveshwar Tudu in Parliament, who stated that no proposal was sent for national project status. Rao alleges that this is a blatant lie and misleading to the House and people.
According to Rao, the Kaleshwaram project had received all clearances from the Central Water Commission and got approval from the technical advisory committee of the Ministry of Jal Shakti. The Chief Minister of Telangana, KCR, requested PM Modi to accord national status to the project, but no action has been taken by the Government of India. When BRS MPs raised the issue in 2018 Parliament sessions, former Minister for Water Resource Nitin Gadkari replied that GoI has no plans to accord national project status to any project in the future. However, the Centre accorded national project status to Upper Bhadra Project of Karnataka and Ken-Betwa project of Madhya Pradesh, both BJP-ruled states.
Rao believes that this is political vengeance by the Centre against Telangana. He points out that the Central Water Commission accorded approval to the Upper Bhadra Project when KWDT-II award was stayed by SC in 2013 and accorded clearances to the Upper Bhadra Project when the case was sub judice. In contrast, everything was clear for Kaleshwaram, but no national project status was accorded despite repeated requests by Telangana. Rao questions whether this is not political vengeance.
