Ghose Commission to probe shelving of Pranahita by KCR

Hyderabad: Justice Chandra Ghose Commission on Kaleshwaram has begun a probe into the shelving of Pranahita – Chevella lift irrigation project by the previous BRS government. The commission has asked the government to furnish all details of the reasons behind scrapping the Pranahita and taking up the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme.

The Congress government in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh conceived the Pranahita Chevella project to provide drinking water and to meet irrigation needs of Rangareddy, Medak and part of Mahbubnagar districts. After the bifurcation of AP, the first BRS government in Telangana dumped the project and came out with a multi-crore Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme.

The agreements entered between the then Congress government in united AP with the Maharashtra counterpart to construct Pranahita and the pact between the BRS government and Maharashtra government on Kaleshwaram would be the main issues in the comparative study of the two projects by the commission.

“What prompted the KCR government to shelve Pranahita and why did the former CM prefer to go with Kaleshwaram? The Commission would analyse with statistical data the expenditure, available water resources for the two lift projects, land acquisition, submergence in the two states and economic viability.

Ghose commission already asked the officials to furnish the details of the five member committee constituted by KCR government to study the viability of Pranahita and its recommendations to the government.

“Was the Kaleshwaram an alternative to Pranahita or the KCR launched his dream project only to scrap the Congress proposal would be known in the probe,” officials said that the then Congress government had spent money on Pranahita and it was a waste expenditure after the launch of the Kaleshwaram scheme.

Sources said that the Commission would also ask the irrigation officials to provide the details of the status of the structures constructed under Pranahita to ascertain the financial burden on the state.