The Saraswati Pushkaralu, a sacred river festival, commenced with a Ganapati puja at the Triveni Sangam in Kaleshwaram of Jayashankar Bhupalpally district on Thursday.
Reddy stated that Telangana is currently paying Rs16,000 crore annually in interest and instalments on high-cost loans borrowed during the BRS regime for this "faulty" project, thereby placing an enormous burden on the state's finances and its farmers.
BRS leader KT Rama Rao on Friday accused the Congress government in Telangana of neglecting the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, resulting in a decrease in water availability for farmers in the state.
The BRS party also shared a video of the Medigadda barrage full of water. They wrote, "The Kaleswaram project that stood up against the conspiracies of the Congress... the Medigadda barrage is filled with water!"
Speaking to ANI, he said that on one side there is the Kaleshwaram project and on the other side there is the power project-inquiry. He questioned how the Congress government was going to pay the pending bills to the contractors.
Telangana's Civil Supplies and Irrigation Minister, Uttam Kumar Reddy along with other irrigation department officials on Friday visited the Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla barrages of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project to carry out an inspection.
The minister disclosed that the committee, led by J Chandrashekar Iyer, former chairman of the Central Water Commission, would investigate the reasons behind the sinking of Medigadda barrage pillars and any observed distress in the two upstream barrages, Annaram and Sundilla.
BRS Working President and MLA Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao alleged on Tuesday that the Congress-led government in the state is showing a criminal conspiracy over the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) and wants Medigadda to be washed away in the rains.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader N Ramchander Rao on Friday demanded the state government to immediately hand over the Kaleshwaram issue investigation to the CBI.
In 2008, the government of the erstwhile combined state of Andhra Pradesh took up the Dr B.R. Ambedkar Pranahitha-Chevella Sujala Sravanthi Lift Irrigation Scheme (PCSS Project) at a cost of Rs 38,500 crore. The project proposed to lift 180 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of water from