SC notice to Telangana, BHEL on alleged irrigation scam

The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to Telangana, BHEL and others on a petition alleging a huge scam of Rs 35,000 crore in the Palamuru Ranga Reddy Lift Irrigation Project.

A bench of justices S A Bobde and Sanjiv Khanna also sought a response from the CBI on a petition filed by former MLA of Andhra Pradesh Dr Nagam Janardan Reddy.

The petitioner, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, alleged a loot of several thousand crores in the tender relating to the electro-mechanical equipment manufactured by the BHEL in the lift-irrigation project.

He sought a CBI investigation in the matter.

Bhushan, along with advocate Neha Rathi, contended that there was a massive scam in Telangana where state government and BHEL have connived to benefit private parties causing a huge loss to the public exchequer.

The petitioner challenged the validity of the judgment and final order passed on December 3, 2018 by the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana High Court, dismissing his plea for probe.

The Telangana government has undertaken the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRRLIS), which has four stages of pumping stations in a total of 18 packages to lift a large volume of water from the Srisailam Reservoir on Krishna river passing through Mahbubnagar district.