KCR appears before Ghose Commission in Kaleshwaram probe
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Hyderabad: Former Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday appeared before the Justice PC Ghose Commission, which is investigating alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project.
KCR arrived at BRK Bhavan near the State Secretariat around 11 a.m., accompanied by senior party leaders. He had departed earlier in the day from his residence at Erravalli in Siddipet district, travelling to Hyderabad in a convoy.
The appearance before the Commission came amid tight security arrangements made by the police. A large number of BRS leaders and supporters, including KCR’s son and BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao, gathered near the MLA Quarters in Adarshnagar and attempted to march in a show of solidarity.
Hours before the hearing, K.T. Rama Rao took to X (formerly Twitter) to allege political vendetta by the Congress-led state government. In a strongly worded post, he wrote, “His story is History. He did a miracle that wasn’t possible for 60 years! He ran a democratic campaign with nothing but pure passion for Telangana. He agitated for a separate state, a dream of millions of people. He quenched the thirst of Telangana with Kaleshwaram. One lifetime won’t be enough for small minds to comprehend the power of KCR! In a hundred lives, the Congress clowns cannot achieve an iota of what KCR did for Telangana!”
KCR, who served as Chief Minister from 2014 to 2023, is expected to be questioned on various aspects of the project, including its redesign and policy and financial decisions taken during its construction. The Commission had originally summoned him on June 5, but he requested a postponement and was rescheduled to June 11.
The Justice Ghose Commission, led by retired Supreme Court judge Pinaki Chandra Ghose, is probing suspected irregularities in the planning, design, construction, quality control, and maintenance of the Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla barrages of the Kaleshwaram project. The one-member Commission was established in March 2024, a few months after several piers of the Medigadda barrage collapsed.
Earlier this week, BRS leader and former Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao appeared before the Commission on June 9. He was examined for around 40 minutes and later informed the media that he had provided a detailed explanation of the reasons behind the project’s redesign. Harish Rao stated that objections from Maharashtra and the Central Water Commission (CWC), along with water availability issues at the original Thummidihatti site, had led to the relocation of the project to Medigadda following a thorough survey. Harish Rao, who held the irrigation portfolio between 2014 and 2018, later met with KCR to brief him on his testimony.
On June 6, BJP MP and former Minister Eatala Rajender also appeared before the Commission. Rajender, who served as Finance Minister from 2014 to 2018, distanced himself from the project’s execution, asserting that all decisions related to construction and financing were handled by the Irrigation Department. He had also served as Health Minister during BRS’s second term (2018–2023) before leaving the party in 2021 after being dropped from the Cabinet over land-grab allegations.
The Commission’s term has been extended seven times since its initial mandate ended on June 30, 2024. Last month, notices were issued to KCR, Harish Rao, and Rajender following the state government’s decision to extend the Commission’s tenure by another two months, until July 31, to ensure completion of its probe.
So far, the Commission has examined 115 individuals, including over 100 engineers and both serving and retired officials associated with the barrages.
With IANS inputs
