Hyderabad: The Justice PC Ghose Commission of inquiry into the Kaleshwaram project has held former chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, former irrigation minister T Harish Rao , former Finance minister E Rajender and a bunch of senior officials, including the then Irrigation special Chief Secretary SK Joshi, responsible for the colossal waste of public money in the construction of the Kaleshwaram project.

The Commission has observed in its report that Rao was directly and indirectly responsible for the irregularities in the project, right from its planning and construction to operation and maintenance of the barrages which are part of the project, sources said. The Commission pointed fingers also at former irrigation minister T Harish Rao, a nephew of KCR. A committee of experts had advised against taking up the Kaleshwaram project, but the BRS regime had “intentionally suppressed” the report, they said. The sources said the officials had prepared a 60-page summary of the report, which runs into 665 pages.

The summary mentioned the names of KCR 32 times, Harish Rao 19 times and former minister Eatala Rajender five times. Rajender is now a BJP Lok Sabha member. The report found Rajender, who was finance minister during the BRS regime, to be negligent, the sources said.

Briefing the press after the Cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister, apparently enthused by the damning evidence against former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and ex-ministers, said that since the report was prepared by an independent judicial commission, the question of resorting to politics of vengeance did not arise. Going by the findings of the Commission highlighted in the report, the government will initiate action against those who were involved in the “embezzlement of public money in the construction of the Kaleshwaram project.”

Amplifying the key findings, Revanth Reddy said that former chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao redesigned the Pranahita -Chevella project and constructed Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages which were damaged within three months of the construction of the Kaleshwaram project. Although an expert committee had submitted a report against Kaleshwaram, KCR chose to go ahead with the construction of the barrages “without any planning”.

The Chief Minister recounted that, ahead of the Assembly elections, the Congress had promised that, if voted to power, the government would order a probe into the collapse of the Kaleshwaram project. Accordingly, the state government constituted a judicial commission to investigate the misuse of Rs one lakh crore in the construction of the project. Revanth Reddy said that the cabinet reviewed the 665-page Ghose Commission report as well as a summary of the report submitted after vetting by a three-member official committee.