Give Kaleshwaram national tag: CM KCR

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Friday urged the Centre to consider the State’s request for declaring the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) being implemented at its own cost as a national project and make adequate provision for it in the Union budget for 2019-20.

The Chief Minister’s speech was read out in absentia by Principal Secretary (Finance) Ramakrishna Rao at the pre-budget meeting of the Finance Ministers of States convened by the Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitaraman in New Delhi. The Chief Minister, who holds the portfolio of Finance, was pre-occupied with the inauguration of the Kaleshwaram project at



Medigadda.

Chandrashekhar Rao said the project was estimated to cost Rs 88,000 crore and a majority of the amount which was spent until now was met mostly from borrowings by the Kaleshwaram Corporation. Telangana had suffered from the lack of irrigation facilities because of the total neglect in the combined State, he said.

Additional funds were required to complete the project, and the debt servicing burden was huge. “We have requested the Government of India to declare it as a national project and the request merits consideration,” he stressed