Hyderabad: Deposing before the Justice (retd) PC Ghose one-man commission inquiring into alleged irregularities in Kaleshwaram project, former BRS finance minister (now BJP MP) Eatala Rajender said the decision on redesigning the project and location of the three barrages – Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla – was taken by the cabinet led by CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, and he had limited role as finance minister.Rajender, who was witness no. 113, told the panel that the project cost, loans, auditing and quality of barrages came under the Kaleshwaram corporation and irrigation department, not the finance department.Cabinet took decisionThe commission, which is probing the sinking of piers in Block 7 of Medigadda barrage and damages in Annaram and Sundilla, called Rajender as witness since he was the finance minister when the project was taken up by the BRS govt in 2015.He served as finance minister between June 2014 and Sept 2018. Apart from Rajender, the commission is set to quiz former BRS irrigation minister T Harish Rao on June 9 and KCR on June 11. On Friday, during 40 minutes of questioning, Justice Ghose posed 19 questions. Rajender maintained that he was merely one of the three members in the cabinet sub-committee headed by then irrigation minister Harish Rao on finalising the location of the Kaleshwaram project, but the cabinet took the final decision.On redesigning of Kaleshwaram, Rajender said that originally it was proposed at Thummudihatti on Maharashtra border at 152 metres height and reduced to 148 metres. Since there were objections from the neighbouring state, the sub-committee was constituted by KCR and cabinet approved it based on expert committee, technical committee and sub-committee reports. He replied that the sub-committee okayed the redesigning and the three barrages’ construction was approved by the cabinet. The MP, however, said he was not aware 5.97 crore paid to WAPCOS for preparation of the report.The project’s initial cost was 16,500 crore, which was revised to 38,000 crore. Later, after revision and inclusion of more areas and components, it was estimated to cost 63,000 crore. Even that was revised to 82,000 crore. Of this, the barrages cost less than 10,000 crore, he said.‘KCR is the big boss’Later, speaking to reporters, Rajender said the decision to shift Kaleshwaram location from Thummidihatti to Medigadda was taken by KCR, who was head of the cabinet and big boss. “There were some comments when I was summoned by the one-man commission. But people of Telangana know me for the past 25 years and I have maintained ethics in politics. I won’t lie even at gun point,” Rajender said. The BJP MP demanded that the govt take action against all those responsible for the alleged irregularities in the project as some agencies have already submitted their reports. He also urged the govt to make reports public.