Vinod Kumar flays Jal Shakti Minister for misleading Parliament

Vinod Kumar warned that a privilege motion would be moved in the Parliament against Tudu if he failed to correct his statement

Rajanna-Sircilla: TS Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar came down heavily on Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti Bisweshwar Tudu for making false statements in the Parliament stating that the Telangana government had never asked for national status for the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project.

Vinod Kumar warned that a privilege motion would be moved in the Parliament against Tudu if he failed to correct his statement. Speaking to reporters here on Saturday, Vinod Kumar said that as Karimnagar MP, on July 20, 2018, he had requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Centre for according national status to one of two projects Kaleshwaram and Palamuru-Rangareddy being constructed on Godavari and Krishna rivers respectively.

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Informing that his statement was there in the Parliament records, he said the then Jal Shakti Minister Nitin Gadkari had stated that the Centre would not give national status to any project in the country.

However, after Gadkari’s statement, the Union government gave national status to two projects, Ken-Betwa river link project in Uttar Pradesh and the Upper Badra project in Karnataka apart from allocating Rs 45,000 crore and Rs 15,000 crore respectively.

Within five days of the formation of a separate State, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had made a representation to the PM and other central ministers requesting them to accord national status for the two projects. Former Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao had also handed over representations on a number of times to the then Jal Shakti Minister Uma Bharathi.

However, Tudu had tried to misguide the parliament and the people of the country, Vinod Kumar said.