Hyderabad: Irrigation minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy lashed out at BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao for unleashing a false campaign and “making silly and immature remarks about Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project” and leveling conspiracy angle to cover up the poor planning, false design, poor operation and maintenance of the project by the BRS government.
The ill-conceived designs of former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and few BRS leaders had put a burden of thousands of crores on the state’s future generations.
Addressing a press meet at Jal Soudha here on Sunday, Uttam Reddy advised Rama Rao to change his name to ‘Joseph Gobels Rao’ for unleashing a false campaign to cover up the commission-centric engineering design of Kaleshwaram project by the BRS government.
“No irrigation project loan in the world was taken up for short-term duration with high interest rates like it was with regard to Kaleshwaram,” he said.
“Even after a Committee of five retired chief engineers was going ahead with Medigadda, which also entailed a massive burden on the state exchequer, the BRS government tried to cover up the committee report and went ahead with construction of the barrage. The government is paying `10,500 crore towards principal and interest of the project, while the power bill would be to the tune of `10,000 crore per annum,'' he said.
Dismissing KTR’s demand to fill up the Kaleshwaram Project's reservoirs as dangerous and ill-informed, he said that this could lead to catastrophic consequences, including structural damage to many key barrages.
“If Kaleshwaram is filled with 16 TMC of water as was suggested by KTR in violation of the recommendations of the National Dam Security Authority, the temple in Bhadrachalam town, Seetamma Sagar project, Dummugudem Project, Eturunagaram and the entire region in the downstream would be washed away in the flood waters”, Uttam warned.
Stating that the Congress government is beginning a new chapter in the state’s irrigation sector, Reddy announced that they were committed to bring 6.5 lakh acres of new ayacut in the current financial year. The irrigation sector had received a clear focus in the financial budget, with a capital investment allocation of `10,820 crore. The government intends to bring 30 lakh acres of new ayacut in the next five years, he announced.
Earlier, Reddy reviewed the status of the irrigation department with advisors, secretaries and other senior officials via video conference.
Irrigation department advisor Aditya Nath Das and secretary Rahul Bojja and other officials also participated.
