KCR Govt Planned to Bear Bahubali Pump House Repair Cost to Favour Contractor
Hyderabad: It is official! The previous K. Chandrashekar Rao-led government moved a proposal to pay for the cost of repairs, running into crores of rupees, to the flooded ‘Bahubali’ pump house in Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (KLIS), in sharp contrast to their claims that the contractor Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited would bear cost under the “defect liability” provision.
Referring to the inundation of the pump house in the July 2022 floods, revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy revealed that a file recommending payment to the contractor was under circulation and was with the finance department.
He was speaking at the much-publicised meeting of group of ministers with KLIS engineers, contractors and the media at the Medigadda barrage site, where some piers sank in October, on Friday.
The minister questioned the decision to construct the pump house at 110 metres above mean sea level, instead of the recommended 126 metres, which he said led to the inundation.
He wanted to know why the stop lock gates did not operate during the floods, and what action was initiated against the officials responsible for substandard works.
Roads and buildings minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy alleged that the pumps supplied by the contractor were of substandard and made in the local markets but the government paid exorbitant rates for the same. He wanted a thorough investigation into the pump house contract.
The Chandrashekar Rao government made similar claims just before the elections that the contractor L&T would bear the cost of repairs to the sunken Medigadda barrage.
When asked about this, irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said: “This information is something which we can not reveal to the media at this stage.”
Srinivas Reddy stole the show by raising several issues even while claiming that he was not technically competent to comment and was only passing on the observations made by village elders at the “rachabanda”.
Transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar ridiculed the previous government for floating the conspiracy theory for which engineer-in-chief C. Muralidhar Rao replied that a huge sound led to some doubts. All suspicions were later ruled out by the police.
Muralidhar Rao, however, put the ministerial delegation in an embarrassing situation by explaining elaborately the non-viability of the Pranahita-Chevella, the brain child of Y.S. Rajashekar Reddy government which the present-day Congress government has been batting for, and remaining silent on the design or quality deficiencies that led to the sinking of the Medigadda barrage.
