Congress asks HC to assign judge for KLIS probe

The state government on Tuesday asked Telangana High Court Chief Justice Alok Aradhe to allocate a judge to probe the engineering lapses in the construction of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) and subsequent sinking of Medigadda Barrage piers.

On the day, the vigilance and enforcement departments searched multiple locations in connection with the alleged irregularities in the KLIS construction.

Disclosing the government's decision on the judicial probe, irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the state government also ordered a vigilance inquiry into the KLIS.

The moves come after Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had announced, in the recent Assembly session, that the state government would order a judicial inquiry into KLIS, ascertain the party responsible for finalising its design, how the contract was finalised and awarded, alongside other factors that caused the issue at Medigadda Barrage.

Meanwhile, sources said around 10 teams of vigilance and enforcement started searches on Tuesday morning and continued till late night, with more searches likely on Wednesday and Thursday.

The department is also focussing on the theft of computers and data from the Manair River Front Development project office, which was



reported two days ago.

According to officials associated with the searches, an inquiry has been taken up on the allegations of sub-standard work in KLIS and also several other irregularities related to the planning, design, execution, payment and other aspects.

"The amount for the project was paid in full measure, but a sub-standard asset was delivered to the state," an official said.

Searches took place at the engineer-in-chief’s office at Jalasoudha in Hyderabad, and project offices at Mahadevpur and Kaleswaram in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district, with a team of senior officials monitoring the same.

Initial searches revealed that several documents were missing and the same was immediately reported to the head office. Following the update, teams were reconstituted and more officials joined the searches, extending it to offices of superintending engineers and engineers associated with the project across the state.

"There are several documents missing and the searches will continue till each such document is traced and collected. Once the searches are completed and all documents are collected, the verification and analysis will begin. Accordingly, the action will follow," an official said.