Telangana’s ruling party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Thursday moved a privilege motion against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Nishikant Dubey, accusing him of misleading the Lok Sabha regarding the expenditure on the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme. MPs from the “pink party”, led by floor leader Nama Nageswara Rao, submitted the notice, availing of the privileges provided by Rule 222 of the Lok Sabha Rule Book.
During the discussions around the no-confidence vote against the Narendra Modi government on Wednesday, Dubey had said that the Centre had sanctioned Rs 86,000 crore for the construction of the Kaleshwaram project in Telangana. BRS leaders soon refuted it saying that the Modi government had not given a single rupee for the project. They alleged that the Centre was deliberately misleading the House.
BRS lawmaker Kotha Prabhakar Reddy said in the House: “Everyone knows BJP spreads lies on WhatsApp, YouTube and Twitter, but we saw yesterday that it lies in Parliament too. They should explain when they gave us the Rs 86,000 crore they claim to have given us.”
Lawmakers Kotha Prabhakar Reddy, Malothu Kavitha, G Ranjith Reddy, P Ramulu, BB Patil, Manne Srinivas Reddy, Venkatesh Netha, and Pasunuri Dayakar were part of the BRS MPs’ delegation who met the Speaker.
The Kaleshwaram project has been a controversial topic in the state after opposition parties started alleging that large-scale corruption had taken place during its construction.
Built on the Godavari river at Kaleshwaram village in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district, it is said to be the largest multi-stage lift irrigation project in the world. It covers a distance of 500 km across 13 districts in Telangana. The aim is to produce 240 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of water for irrigation, drinking, and industrial uses.
On Wednesday, BRS leader Dasoju Sravan had taken to social media site X (formerly Twitter) to say: “Lies & utter lies of the BJP Govt on the floor of Parliament misleading the nation. Kaleshwaram, the world’s largest lift irrigation project, is the brainchild of KCR, which was built with a loan amount taken from various financial institutions, while the government of India has not even granted a single rupee.”
Last year, BRS working president K Taraka Rama Rao had slammed the Centre for granting National Project status to the Upper Bhadra scheme in Karnataka and Polavaram in Andhra Pradesh, but not to the Kaleshwaram project.
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