BENGALURU: A team of officials and top engineers in the Water Resources Department is preparing to go on a foreign tour to study dam safety, but the team selection has caused heartburn to many.
The eight-member team is set to tour the United States under the `276-crore Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP), which is assisted by World Bank.
On the team’s agenda is studying dam safety and rehabilitation systems and technologies in America. The estimated tour cost is `24 lakh.
The team is also scheduled to participate in an international conference on dam safety in New Orleans.
Who Made It?
The officers selected for the tour are P B Ramamurthy, Additional Chief Secretary in the Water Resources Department; B G Guruprasadaswamy, Secretary in the department; Sadashiva Reddy B Patil, Chief Engineer and Nodal Officer of DRIP; N Srinivas, Project Director of DRIP; Anil Kumar
B Maradi, Deputy Secretary in the Water Resources Department; C Anantha Ramu, Chief Engineer of the Upper Krishna Project Zone; S F Patil, Chief Engineer (in-charge) of the Malaprabha Project Zone; and Jagannath Halinge, Chief Engineer (in-charge), Kalaburagi zone.
While the officers are eagerly waiting for the final approval for the tour, their selection has ignited objections from many of their colleagues and senior engineers. Most question the selection criterion.
“It is surprising that not even a single senior engineer or officer from the Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd (CNNL) has been selected. There are many reservoirs including the KRS and Kabini which have been selected under DRIP in the Cauvery basin. But no officer or engineer has been selected from here. This has really disappointed many officers in CNNL,” a high-ranking engineer told Express.
Meanwhile, Project Director N Srinivas denied allegations of bias in selection. “This will not be the first and last study tour under this project. Officers and engineers from CNNL or the Karnataka Neeravari Nigam Ltd will be accommodated in future tours,” he said.