Kaleshwaram facts, not Congress spin
BRS leaders point to the record; the BJP–Congress chorus points to each other. The CAG lays out what the project set out to do; Harish Rao calls out the numbers games. Telangana’s side has paperwork. The national parties have a script.
The Kaleshwaram debate, between the audit trail and the press line.
The CAG’s performance audit spells out Kaleshwaram in plain numbers: a multi-stage system built to lift 215 TMC from the Godavari, create 18.26 lakh acres of new command area and supplement another 4.71 lakh acres — seven links, 56 packages, three barrages, 14 reservoirs, 31 lifts, 1,832 km of canals, tunnels and pipelines. That is the project on paper, not a WhatsApp forward. According to the audit, parts of that command area were later reduced and some works remained ongoing as of March 2022 — a record of scope changes and delays, not the BJP–Congress fable that nothing existed until their press meets began.
When the Congress government in Telangana claims wild swings — from “no new acre” to mystery totals — BRS MLA T. Harish Rao has put his name to the counter: he called Kaleshwaram “the lifeline of Telangana” and presented a document titled “Kaleshwaram — misinformation and facts”, citing 98,570 acres of new ayacut and 456 minor tanks filled benefiting 39,146 acres. The irrigation department has separately cited 20.33 lakh acres irrigated and 98,000 acres of new ayacut. These are on-record claims with authors; the Congress soundbites are on-record contradictions with a chief minister on one day and his irrigation minister on another.
K. T. Rama Rao’s summary of the national-party routine is not subtle: “Both BJP and Congress are working with a single objective to irritate KCR garu. Their agenda is not governance but vendetta.” He also points out the obvious — Kaleshwaram was a government-approved, Cabinet-sanctioned project. Meanwhile, the audit even records the government’s technical defence on power — TSTRANSCO assurance of 4,627 MW and planned solar purchases — because that is how serious projects are argued: with filings.
Here is the split: Telangana’s case lives in a CAG report and named briefings; the BJP-led Centre and the Congress in Telangana prefer press lines that change with the venue. If the Congress government has better numbers than its own department or the audit trail, it can publish them. Until then, the state’s flagship project deserves better than a national-party duet.