KLIS not given national status as it has engineering flaws: Gajendra Shekhawat

YADADRI-BHUVANAGIRI: Describing the recent submergence of the three dams and their pump houses built as part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) as an ‘engineering flaw,’ Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on Tuesday accused the State government of trying to blame the Centre to hide its own faults related to the design and execution of the project.

Addressing a public meeting at Vangapalli village of Yadadri municipality on the first day of the third phase of BJP MP Bandi Sanjay’s Praja Sangrama Yatra on Tuesday, Shekhawat said that one needed to visit the KLIS to understand the construction flaws. 

In given circumstances, he said that according the national project status to KLIS was not possible, as it neither had environmental clearance, nor investment clearance was accorded before it was taken up. He wanted to know who the TRS had supported when Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit, and Draupadi Murmu, a tribal woman, were elevated to the highest political office by the BJP. “BJP in principle has stood to serve the last person among the marginalised and the weaker sections,” he alleged. 

Shekhawat claimed that there has been a conscious effort by the ruling party in the State to erase the contribution of the BJP in the statehood movement. “Just like the struggle for Independence, the people of Telangana sacrificed their lives to free their motherland. But only some people have been enjoying the fruits of Telangana formation to benefit their families. Have the aspirations of the people been realised?” Shekhawat said.