BRS rebuts Govt. point-wise on NDSA report on Kaleshwaram project Barrages

HYDERABAD

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has faulted Minister for Irrigation N. Uttam Kumar Reddy for continuing the rhetoric of blaming the previous government without any substance in the matter of Kaleshwaram project barrages in the name of National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) Report.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday to counter the powerpoint presentation made by the Minister highlighting the issues raised in the report faulting the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of the Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla Barrages of the project, senior leader of the BRS and former minister for irrigation T. Harish Rao said Mr. Uttam Reddy had repeated the same content thrice separately over the last few months.

He stated that Mr. Uttam Reddy was glorifying the NDSA which had failed to give reports in case of several other projects referred to it including Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh. The NDSA experts had not even visited the diaphragm wall and guide wall collapse. It was when J. Chandrashekhar Iyer was Chairman of Polavaram Project Authority the two structures were built.

He reminded Mr. Reddy that it was he who had opposed the Bill on the constitution of the NDSA while speaking in Lok Sabha on behalf of the Congress party.

Mr. Harish Rao said the Congress leader had stated during his speech opposing the bill that “its unconstitutional and encroachment upon States’ rights”. He pointed out that the NDSA report had nowhere mentioned in its report there was corruption in the construction of Medigadda or other barrages.

The BRS leaders also highlighted the timing of the NDSA report and noted that the preliminary report was released before the Assembly elections, interim report was made public before the Lok Sabha elections and the final report was released before the silver jubilee celebrations of the party.

He sought to know why the then Congress Government had not constructed Tummidihatti Barrage till 2014 after taking up Pranahita-Chevella project in 2007, when the same Congress was in power in Maharashtra and at the Centre.

Mr. Harish Rao also faulted Mr. Uttam Reddy for spreading misinformation on barrages and reminded him that Farakka Barrage had the capacity to store 30 tmcft water and its dead storage was 7 tmcft. He sought to know why the detailed project report of Kodangal lift irrigation project was not readied so far and why the cost of Polavaram project had gone up from ₹9,500 crore to ₹95,000 crore.