BJP leaders visit Medigadda barrage, blame KCR for sinking of piers

Hyderabad, Nov 4 (IANS) Union minister and state BJP president G. Kishan, along with other leaders of the party, on Saturday inspected Medigadda (Lakshmi) barrage, a part of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district.

Kishan Reddy, along with MP K. Laxman, MLAs Eatala Rajender and Raghunandan Rao reached the barrage in a helicopter from Hyderabad.

Some piers of the barrage had recently sunk in, prompting the Centre to send a team of officials from National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA).

The BJP delegation visited the barrage a day after the report of the NDSA became public.

The team stated that piers of barrage sunk due to a combination of issues involving planning, design, quality control and operation and maintenance.

The visit by the BJP leaders came two days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with state party chief A. Revanth Reddy and other leaders inspected the barrage.

Talking to reporters, Kishan Reddy said the future of the Kaleshwaram project has become uncertain.

He blamed Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for the sinking of piers of the barrage.

He alleged that KCR's ambitious project proved to be an utter flop. He said for commissions and kickbacks, the state government misused the public money.

The minister said if the state government writes a letter, the Centre would order a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) 'within 15 minutes'.

He said people were worried over the projects and policies of the state government. "We have the responsibility to save the project," he said.

Laxman said the Central team made it clear in its report that there was negligence in the planning, design, construction and maintenance.

He alleged that in the name of redesigning, KCR government inflated the project cost to Rs1 lakh crore and built the project with poor quality.

The opposition parties have been alleging massive corruption in Kaleshwaram, touted as the world's biggest lift irrigation project.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had visited the barrage on Thursday and alleged that Chief Minister KCR and his family plundered Rs1 lakh crore of public money.

A six-member committee led by member (disaster & resilience) NDSA had visited Telangana from October 23 to 25 to examine the reasons for the sinking of the piers of the Medigadda barrage.

The committee said in its report that though it sought a list of 20 data/inputs to examine the matter, only 11 items were submitted by Irrigation & CAD. Department.

According to the report, the two barrages constructed upstream of Medigadda under the Kaleshwaram project, viz; Annaram and Sundila barrages, have similar designs and construction methodologies, making them prone to similar failure modes.

Signs of boiling already exist downstream of Annaram barrage, a precursor to failure. These barrages also should be examined urgently for signs of piping/distress, it said.