Hyderabad: The Union Ministry of Jal Shakti has sent an expert committee to Telangana to conduct a probe on the sinking of a portion of the Medigadda (Laxmi) barrage of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP).
National Dam Safety Authority chairman Anil Jain is heading the six-member committee, which will hold a review meeting with state officials in Hyderabad later in the day.
The panel will subsequently visit the barrage in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district.
The Union Ministry has asked the committee to submit a report after inspecting the barrage and interacting with all stakeholders.
According to the order of the Ministry, pillars numbering 15 to 20 of the sixth to eighth blocks of the barrage caved in on the night of October 21 after pillar number 20 of Block 7 of the barrage had partially sunk.
As per para 8 of Schedule-II of the Dam Safety Act, 2021, a committee is constituted to examine the reasons for the sinking of the piers of the barrage of the Kaleshwaram project, says the order.
The team has been directed to interact with the officials concerned of the state government and the agency involved in the construction of the barrage.
The incident led to the temporary closure of the bridge of the barrage across the Godavari river that links Telangana with Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district. Suspecting sabotage, project officials complained to the local police.
The Medigadda barrage of the Kaleshwaram Project is 1.6 km-long and the portion which partially sunk is only 356 meters from Maharashtra.
The KLIP authorities have started letting out stored water by opening about 22 of the total 85 gates of the barrage to facilitate the technical assessment of the exact cause and damage.
The project engineers, however, said that there was no threat to the barrage.
The repair will be carried out after assessing the damage.
The incident has evoked sharp reaction from the opposition Congress and BJP.
They blamed poor design and low quality of work for the incident and asked Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to own up the responsibility.
The Congress has demanded an inquiry by a sitting judge.
Alleging that the state government was trying to hush up the incident by stopping media persons and opposition leaders from going for inspection, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy urged Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan to order an inquiry.
He said the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) should also probe into the allegations of corruption in the Kaleshwaram project and further alleged that the corrupt practices were exposed with the sinking of pillars of the mega project constructed at a cost of Rs 1.20 lakh crore.
Alleging that KCR’s family had made money in the project, Revanth Reddy said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had reiterated this during his recent visit to Telangana.
He mocked Chief Minister KCR for claiming it to be the world’s largest lift irrigation project.
He said within a few years pumps worth hundreds of crores were submerged and now the pillars were sinking. BJP alleged that KLIP is nothing but a scam by KCR.
It claimed that the Centre constituted a committee after the intervention by union minister and state BJP president G. Kishan Reddy.
Kishan Reddy alleged that the state government is not allowing engineers and experts to visit the site.
“For long time, engineers have been expressing doubts over the quality of construction of this project and it was proved right. Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has described the project as an engineering marvel. Chandrasekhar Rao, who claimed to read 80,000 books, transformed as engineer and got the project constructed without lending an ear to the engineers. Project estimates were increased and public money was looted in the name of the project,” said Kishan Reddy, adding that part of the project was sunk in within three years of construction.
“In the past the pump houses of the project were submerged due to heavy floods. Now part of the project has sunk in. The lapses of the project are coming out one after another. 150 tmcft water was lifted in the last five years and again released down. Let the Chief Minister, who promised 400 tmcft water to the farming sector, explain how much water was supplied for irrigation,” said the Union Minister.
