BJP slams govt. over KLIS repair costs, demands recovery from errant parties
HYDERABAD
BJP Chief Whip and Sirpur MLA Palvai Harish Babu has demanded clarification from Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy regarding the cost incurred for repair and restoration of the Medigadda Barrage and other barrages of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP).
According to Mr. Harish Babu, contractors involved in the project, including L&T-PES and Afcons, have written a letter demanding that the government bear the entire cost of renovation.
In a statement here on Sunday, he warned that if the government bears the entire cost of reconstruction without exposing the corruption, it will burden people. The estimated repair cost will be around ₹10,000 crore, he said. The contractors are demanding reimbursement for work to be done as per NDSA recommendations, which could cost up to ₹40 crore.
Mr. Harish Babu also slammed BRS leaders, including former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao and former Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao, for reportedly refusing to attend the Judicial Commission's inquiry into the fiasco.
He also demanded action against companies involved in the project, and sought recovery of funds from responsible parties. Government should stop the final bill payment for Medigadda Barrage until KLIP's restoration is complete, he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
17 minutes ago
- Time of India
Trump wants America to make things again. Does it have what it takes?
HO CHI MINH CITY: President Donald Trump ignited a global trade war on a gamble that taxing other countries would bring jobs and factories "roaring back" to the United States. Many business leaders are skeptical. Some are incredulous. Sanjeev Bahl is optimistic. From his factory in Los Angeles, Bahl oversees around 250 people who sew, cut and distress jeans for brands like Everlane, J. Crew and Ralph Lauren. They stitch together 70,000 pairs of jeans a month. America, he insisted, can make stuff again. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Esta nueva alarma con cámara es casi regalada en Rosario (ver precio) Verisure Undo But there is a catch. The operation works only because his company, Saitex , runs a much bigger factory and fabric mill in southern Vietnam where thousands of workers churn out 500,000 pairs of jeans a month. Trump's tariffs have upended supply chains, walloped businesses and focused the minds of corporate leaders on one question: Does America have what it takes to bring jobs back? Live Events In many industries, the undertaking would take years, if not decades. The United States lacks nearly every part of the manufacturing ecosystem -- the workers, the training, the technology and the government support. "There are some harsh realities," said Matt Priest, CEO of the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, a trade group. And Trump's strategy is shrouded in uncertainty. Last month, he said, "We're not looking to make sneakers and T-shirts" in the United States. But his steepest tariffs, set to take effect in July, were directed at countries that make clothes and shoes for sale to Americans. Vietnam, at 46%, was one of the hardest hit. Those tariffs, intended to push companies to bring factory work home, were deemed illegal by a ruling last week by the U.S. Court of International Trade. That decision was temporarily paused by a different court, giving judges time to evaluate an appeal by the Trump administration. Amid all the legal wrangling, Trump has promised to find other ways to disrupt the rules of trade. Trump has exposed the difficulties in closing the vast distances, geographical and logistical, between where many products are made and where they are consumed. The gulf was laid bare during the COVID-19 pandemic, when strict health policies in Asian countries led to the shutdown of factories. When they reopened, orders had piled up and snarled shipping routes trying to ferry goods across thousands of miles. NYT News Service Sanjeev Bahl, the chief executive of Saitex, at the company's Los Angeles factory on May 6, 2025. For executives like Bahl of Saitex, the turmoil caused by Trump's trade policies has brought fresh urgency to the challenges of managing global supply chains. "The extended fear and uncertainty that COVID brought was unforeseen," Bahl said. "There was nothing that could help us except survival instinct." In response, Saitex opened a factory in Los Angeles in 2021. Since Trump announced his intention to impose steep tariffs on Vietnam, Bahl has been thinking about how much more he can make in the United States. He could probably bring about 20% of production to the States, up from 10% today, he said. He believes Saitex could be a blueprint for other apparel companies: "We could be the catalyst of the hypothesis that manufacturing can be brought back to the United States," he said. But his experience highlights how hard it would be. There are no mills in America on the scale of what the industry needs, nor major zipper and button suppliers. The cost of running a factory is high. Then there is the labor problem: There just aren't enough workers. American factories are already struggling to fill around 500,000 manufacturing jobs, according to estimates by Wells Fargo economists. They calculate that to get manufacturing as a share of employment back to the 1970s peak that Trump has sometimes called for, new factories would have to open and hire 22 million people. There are currently 7.2 million unemployed people. Trump's crackdown on immigration has made things worse. Factory jobs moved overseas to countries, like Vietnam, that had growing populations and young people looking for jobs to pull themselves out of poverty. The future that Trump envisions, with millions of factory jobs, would have to include immigrants seeking that same opportunity in the United States. Steve Lamar, CEO of the American Apparel and Footwear Association, an industry lobby group, said there was a gap between a "romantic notion about manufacturing" and the availability of American workers. "A lot of people say we should be making more clothing in the U.S., but when you ask them, they don't want to sit in the factory, nor do they want their kids to sit in the factory," he said. "The problem is that there aren't any other people around," he added. At Saitex's Los Angeles factory, most of the workers come from countries like Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador. Some 97% of the clothes and shoes that Americans buy are imported for cost reasons. Companies that make everything in the United States include firms like Federal Prison Industries, also known as Unicor, which employs convicts to make military uniforms for less than minimum wage, Lamar said. Other companies make some of their fashion lines in the United States, like New Balance and Ralph Lauren. Others are playing around with a model where they make small batches of clothes in the United States to test designs and determine their popularity before commissioning big orders -- usually from factories in other countries. It is hard to make things in great volume in America. For Bahl, it boils down to the cost of a sewing machine operator. In Los Angeles, that person gets paid around $4,000 a month. In Vietnam, it is $500. In Saitex's factory there, which Bahl set up in 2012 in Dong Nai province, an hour's drive from Ho Chi Minh City, more than a dozen sewing lines are neatly laid out and humming six days a week. On a recent day, hundreds of workers pushed panels of jeans through sewing machines so quickly that the fabrics, briefly suspended in the air, looked as though they were flying. The work was augmented by sophisticated machines that can stitch labels onto a dozen shirts at a time, or laser a distressed pattern onto multiple jeans. Nearby, at a spray carousel, a robot mimicked the precise movements of a worker spraying denim. "The speed is much higher in Vietnam," said Gilles Cousin, a plant manager overseeing the sewing section. NYT News Service Jeans at the Saitex factory, which makes jeans for brands like Everlane, J. Crew and Ralph Lauren, in Dong Nai, Vietnam, on April 26, 2025. If Trump really wants to bring jobs back, Bahl said, he should give some tariff exemptions to companies like Saitex that are doing more in the United States. American factories like his can't expand without importing many of the things that go into their finished products. For its part, Saitex ships bales of American cotton to Vietnam, where its two-story mill turns fluffy cotton lint into thread and, eventually, rolls of dyed fabric. That fabric is then shipped back the United States for his Los Angeles factory. Until there is enough momentum from companies making things in the United States, the fabric, zippers and buttons will have to be brought into the country. Moving production from overseas would require huge investments, too. Saitex has plowed around $150 million in Vietnam, where its factory recycles 98% of its water, air dries its denim and uses technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and cut down on labor-intensive practices. In the United States, Saitex has spent around $25 million. These are long-term commitments that take at least seven years to recover, according to Bahl. Ultimately, if Trump decided to stick to his original 46% tariff on Vietnam and Saitex could not soften the financial blow, it would have to look to other markets to sell the products it made in Vietnam -- like Europe, where it sends about half of what it makes. "But then," Bahl said from Los Angeles, "what happens to our factory here?"
New Indian Express
17 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Busted Pakistani propaganda among OIC nations: Shrikant Shinde
NEW DELHI: India succeeded in busting the Pakistani narrative on Operation Sindoor, particularly among the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) member nations, where Islamabad sought succour after carrying out terror activities across the border, Shiv Sena leader Shrikant Shinde said. Shinde, who led a multi-party delegation to the UAE and West African countries as part of the government's global outreach efforts after Operation Sindoor, said the unique initiative provided an opportunity to convey India's message of zero tolerance for terrorism forcefully in nations that have a distinct voice in multilateral fora such as the OIC and the United Nations Security Council. The delegation led by Shinde visited the UAE, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Congo and interacted with senior representatives of the government, parliaments of the respective nations, think tanks and the Indian diaspora during its 14-day visit. "I think the propaganda Pakistan tried to sell to these nations, we were able to bust it. It was Pakistan that sent terrorists across the border into India to carry out attacks. We provided all facts and evidence. It was a very successful outreach programme," Shinde, who represents Kalyan parliamentary seat in suburban Mumbai in the Lok Sabha, told PTI Videos. The delegation led by Shinde comprised Bansuri Swaraj (BJP), E T Mohammad Basheer (IUML), Atul Garg (BJP), Sasmit Patra (BJD), Manan Kumar Mishra (BJP), former union Minister S S Ahluwalia and former diplomat Sujan Chinoy.
India Gazette
20 minutes ago
- India Gazette
All-party delegation led by Ravi Shankar Prasad interacts with Brussels-based think tanks; discusses Op Sindoor
Brussels [Belgium], June 5 (ANI): The all-party delegation led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad interacted with Brussels-based think tanks and deliberated on the wide-ranging menace of terrorism, including cross-border terrorism directed against India. In a post on X, the official handle of India in Belgium posted, 'Insightful interaction with leading Brussels-based think tanks. The members of the All-Party Parliamentary Delegation had a wide-ranging discussion on the menace of terrorism, including cross-border terrorism directed against India.' 'They discussed India's counter-terrorism efforts, including Operation Sindoor, with members of the think tank community in Brussels. The delegation conveyed a unified and unequivocal message of zero tolerance against terrorism,' said the post. After meeting the delegation led by BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad, Jan Luykx, Senior Associate at Egmont Institute and Former Envoy to India, said, 'I think the delegation's message was very clear. Several important points were raised regarding the recent developments in Kashmir and the terrorist attack that took place in Pahalgam.' 'We received a lot of information and insights that will contribute to our understanding of India's evolving role on the global stage and its ongoing fight against terrorism. People were deeply horrified by the Pahalgam incident, where innocent civilians and tourists were killed. There is a strong sense of empathy and understanding toward the grief,' he said. After the meeting, Garima Mohan of the German Marshall Fund also spoke to ANI and said, 'It was very insightful to hear perspectives from across the Indian political spectrum. As I mentioned, there hasn't been much coverage of Operation Sindoor in the European media due to the ongoing media crisis.' 'So, it was valuable for us to understand the operation clearly, its implications, and how it may influence policy dynamics. We also learned that India's response through Operation Sindoor was very targeted, specifically focusing on terrorist camps,' she added. EU Foreign Policy Advisor Stefania Benaglia also spoke to ANI and said, 'It was a valuable meeting, and we gained significant insights from it. The key takeaway is that we need to engage in more frequent and deeper dialogue to understand one another truly. At times, even with good intentions on both sides, the messages may not be perfectly aligned or communicated.' 'There was a strong condemnation issued on May 8 by all 27 members. While unanimity can be difficult to achieve, the fact that all members came together on this sends a powerful signal. Going forward, this conversation must continue, especially around the question: what role does India envision for itself, and how can the EU support that?' she stated. The delegation arrived in Brussels on Wednesday after concluding their visit to the United Kingdom. During the two-day visit, the delegation is scheduled to hold several meetings aimed at consolidating global consensus against cross-border terrorism. The delegation includes BJP MPs Daggubati Purandeswari and Samik Bhattacharya, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, Congress MPs Ghulam Ali Khatana and Amar Singh, former Union Minister MJ Akbar, and former Ambassador Pankaj Saran. Earlier, the delegation visited the UK to garner widespread support for India's fight against terrorism and highlight Pakistan's role in fostering terrorism. The team received support from British parliamentarians, think tanks, and the Indian diaspora. Ravi Shankar Prasad noted that they met UK leaders, including the Speaker of the House of Commons and Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel, and underlined the need for greater global accountability in terrorism financing, while reinforcing India's democratic approach. The diplomatic effort is part of India's broader global outreach following Operation Sindoor, launched on May 7 as a military response to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists, which claimed 26 lives. Subsequently, the Indian Armed Forces carried out strikes targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, resulting in the deaths of over 100 terrorists affiliated with groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen. (ANI)
