Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao made sensational comments that the then cabinet did not approve the Kaleshwaram project. He denied that the then Finance Minister and current BJP MP Etala Rajender had told the Kaleshwaram Commission that it had cabinet approval, which was a blatant lie.
“The issue of sanctioning the Kaleshwaram project never came before the cabinet. Cabinet approval was not obtained. We did not submit a report to the government as a sub-committee regarding the Kaleshwaram project. Kaleshwaram was implemented directly with an executive order. After three years, only revised estimates were submitted to the cabinet,” he said.
The Minister explained that the Medigadda sanction GO was issued first, which was GO (No. 231) on March 1, 2016, and then the re-engineering GO was issued fifteen days later. It was the Sub-Committee GO (No. 655) on March 15, 2016, and he was a member of it, but Minister Thummala clarified that the Cabinet Sub-Committee had nothing to do with the Medigadda sanction.
He said that the Cabinet Sub-Committee was formed on the status of ongoing projects and that he did not need to lie. He said that the Cabinet Sub-Committee had consulted the department to quickly complete the four projects that were left in the middle, their status, and how to take the engineering work forward and gave a report.
Minister Thummala explained that he has the report, but it does not contain any issues related to Kaleshwaram barrages. He said that they had formed a sub-committee on the Pranahita, Devadula, Kantakapalli, Tupakula Gudem, and Sammakka Sarakka projects and had submitted a report in consultation with the department on how to proceed with the remaining work in them.
Minister Thummala revealed that it is the duty of the Cabinet Sub-Committee to decide what procedures to follow to complete the projects that have been stalled halfway, and that he will send the recommendations of the Cabinet Sub-Committee suo moto to the Kaleshwaram Commission. He said that he will write a letter to the Kaleshwaram Commission with the details and complete information on the matters that have occurred.
He deplored that it is regrettable that Etala Rajender is misleading the people by making irrelevant statements and continuing programs that harm the farmers. He criticized that Etala Rajender is trying to politically smear the Congress government that came to power in just a year and a half.
