Punishment Coming for Those Responsible for Medigadda Fate: Revanth

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Monday said the government was following a two-pronged approach with respect to the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (KLIS), one being ensuring punishment to those responsible in any manner for the plight of the project, and the other a commitment to repair and rehabilitate the barrages and out the project to use again.

“We will repair and bring the Kaleshwaram barrages back into use. We will also simultaneously take up and complete the original Pranahita-Chevella project to bring water from the Pranahita directly to the Sripada Yellampalli reservoir,” he said. At the same time, there was no way that those responsible for the problems at the barrages would be allowed to get away with their actions. “They will face action,” the Chief Minister declared at a press meet at Medigadda after inspecting the ongoing tests at the barrage which are a prelude to preparing designs for its repair.

Revanth Reddy was accompanied by irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, and ministers D. Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabhakar, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, and Vakiti Srihari, NDSA chairman Anil Jain, senior irrigation officials, and representatives from L&T, the company which built the Medigadda barrage.

The Chief Minister said that despite Rs 11,700 crore spent on the Pranahita-Chevella project, first by the Congress government and later under the BRS after Telangana was formed, it was abandoned. “KCR thought the project was of no use to him, either financially and politically, so he unveiled his redesign, changed the name and location, as well as prepared estimates for Rs 1.5 lakh crore. A project that could have been completed at Rs 38,500 crore, saw Rs 1 lakh crore being spent but, since its inauguration in 2019, it could not even irrigate a total of one lakh acres,” Revanth Reddy said.

“But KCR did get political benefit by getting re-elected, and even then, Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan was misled so much that he called Harish Rao ‘Kaleshwar Rao’. Though engineers reported problems and leaks at the barrages right from 2020, there was no maintenance, and ultimately, in October 2023, the Medigadda barrage collapsed. KCR again wanted to gain in the 2023 elections but nature exposed his diabolical plans when the barrage collapsed,” he said.

Revanth Reddy said that soon after the Medigadda disaster, he, along with Rahul Gandhi and Sridhar Babu visited barrage to inspect the damage. The NDSA in its preliminary report in November 2023 made it clear that there were design, construction, quality, and operation and maintenance deficiencies. “Instead of taking corrective action, the BRS launched a counter-attack on the NDSA,” he said.

He said that after the Congress came to power, a judicial inquiry was ordered that resulted in a 604-page report identifying mistakes by members from the political executive, officers, and construction agencies. “The government wrote to the CBI eight months ago to investigate the Kaleshwaram project as multiple agencies were involved. We also sent a reminder recently, but despite BJP’s Union minister G Kishan Reddy assurance that once a request goes, the CBI will arrest KCR and Harish in two days, no probe has been ordered. If action is not taken, then the Centre should be prepared to face a massive movement exposing the BJP’s links with the BRS,” Revanth Reddy said.