HYDERABAD: Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday said that the state Cabinet would soon discuss the final report submitted by the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) on Kaleshwaram project and decide the future course of action.
Speaking to reporters here, the Irrigation minister said that the NDSA report on Kaleshwaram casts a shadow over the “crown jewel of the then BRS government”, exposing what he called the worst man-made disaster in India’s history.
Giving a PowerPoint presentation on the NDSA report at the Secretariat, Uttam said that the government would take action as per law against not just the officials responsible but also the politicians who gave instructions to officials for execution of the project.
When asked to name the politicians, Uttam said that everyone knows who the chief minister and Irrigation ministers were during the 10-year-rule of the BRS.
Refuting the allegations that the Congress was trying to wipe out the name of KCR while showing the Kaleshwaram project in poor light, Uttam said: “KCR has already earned a name for incurring a financial loss of `1 lakh crore and damaging farmers’ prospects. The state’s financial situation has been damaged permanently due to Kaleshwaram.”
When queried about the NDSA recommending preparation of rehabilitation design, the minister said it would be discussed in the Cabinet meeting and a decision would be taken after that. He also presented the chronological order of events that led to the disaster at Medigadda.
Highlighting the key points of the NDSA report, Uttam said that the barrages that were designed by the Central Design Organisation (CDO) unit as floating structures were not built accordingly; instead, they were constructed as rigid structures.
“The hydraulic jump situation occurred every year starting from 2019 itself. This led to washing out of the downstream apron and the CC blocks of all the three barrages — Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla. But this was suppressed with the pressure from above that the barrages be continuously operational. The situation would have been corrected by doing correct modelling with appropriate scaling,” he explained.
Quoting the NDSA report, the minister said that the execution of the three barrages was taken up while the detailed project report (DPR) of the Kaleshwaram project was still under techno-economic appraisal by Central Water Commission (CWC) and other central agencies.
“The Irrigation department effected significant deviations in the project parameters during the construction of the barrages. The decisions on relocation of Annaram and Sundilla barrages were taken by a high powered committee without any upfront geo-technical investigations. The design flood considered for the construction of Sundilla barrage is inadequate, as against the CWC approved value of design flood,” Uttam said.
He also pointed out that pre-monsoon and post-monsoon inspections were never conducted by the department during BRS regime.
What Uttam said
Barrages designed by the Central Design Organisation unit as floating structures were not constructed accordingly, but were instead built as rigid structures
Hydraulic jump situation, which occurred every year starting from 2019, led to washing out of the downstream apron and the CC blocks of all the three barrages — Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla. But this was suppressed with “pressure from above”
Execution of three barrages taken up even as the DPR of the Kaleshwaram project was still under techno-economic appraisal by Central Water Commission (CWC) and other Central agencies
Irrigation department effected significant deviations in the project parameters during the construction of the barrages
Decisions on relocation of Annaram and Sundilla barrages were taken up by a high-powered committee without any upfront geo-technical investigations
Pre-monsoon and post-monsoon inspections were never conducted by the department during BRS regime