Eatala Rajender sticks to his guns on KLIP

BJP Malkajgiri MP and former Finance Minister Eatala Rajender has stuck to his guns on the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) getting Cabinet clearance under the KCR regime and offered to quit politics if he was proved wrong.

Addressing a press conference on Thursday, to highlight his one year work as an MP, Mr. Rajender was irked when questioned about his stance on the controversial project as told to the Justice Ghose Committee.

“I am being unnecessarily targeted. Doesn’t Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy know that no project can be built without Cabinet clearance? Isn’t his Cabinet meeting regularly to discuss such issues? There are three ministers in his own Cabinet who were present in the BRS government too, why can’t he ask them? I can also state that former Chief Minister KCR even went to the extent of telling various departments not to take unilateral decisions but get them cleared in the Cabinet,” he maintained.

The BJP leader said he was ready to provide evidence of the official papers to the media to prove his point. He was also among the first to have opposed the irrigation projects taken up to benefit Andhra Pradesh like the Pothireddypadu work during the Y.S. Rajashekara Reddy Government.

Progress report

Top BJP leaders, including Union Minister for Coal & Mines G. Kishan Reddy, will be attending a meeting at Imperial Gardens in Secunderabad on June 22, where he will present his one year progress card (works taken up in the constituency) with an exhibition. It will also highlight the Modi Government’s initiatives in the third term.

Mr. Rajender spoke about the ongoing national highway works, completion of MMTS phase two, Cherlapally terminal station and Malkajgiri station improvement, and proposed flyovers connecting Medchal and Shamirpet.

He demanded that the ₹300 crore compensation to be paid to the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) by the government for the proposed flyovers should be utilised to build housing for the poor in the area itself. Senior leaders S. Malla Reddy and others were present.