HYDERABAD: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Wednesday cautioned officials, particularly those in the Irrigation department, against acting on instructions from political leaders lacking technical understanding.
Doing so could result in legal consequences, Revanth said, citing the Vigilance and Enforcement and National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) reports that pointed to official lapses in the Kaleshwaram project.
Speaking at Jala Soudha after distributing appointment orders to 423 newly recruited assistant engineers and junior technical officers, the chief minister accused officials of following directions from former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, whom he said acted “like an engineer” in overseeing the Kaleshwaram project.
Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Transport and BC Welfare Minister Ponnam Prabhakar and other officials were present at the event.
‘BRS govt spent Rs 2 lakh crore but failed to complete projects’
Revanth alleged that projects initiated under the previous BRS government were poorly planned, and stated that it was difficult to predict which structure might fail next. Referring to a recent incident, he stated that some pillars of the Seetharama Sagar project had also collapsed.
According to the chief minister, the BRS administration spent nearly Rs 2 lakh crore over 10 years on irrigation projects but failed to complete any.
He said, “They claim to have irrigated one crore acres. I ask people to compare Nagarjunasagar, Srisailam and Sriramsagar — projects built by the Congress — with Kaleshwaram, which collapsed within three years without any natural calamity.”
Citing a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, Revanth said, Rs 1.47 lakh crore was spent on Kaleshwaram, of which Rs 1.02 lakh crore had been paid to contractors. He claimed that Rs 10,000–Rs 15,000 crore remains pending and that the project failed to deliver irrigation for even 50,000 acres.
He stated that globally no irrigation structure — from Somalia to the United States — had collapsed like the barrages at Annaram, Sundilla and Medigadda. He also stated that no soil tests were conducted before constructing the Kaleshwaram project.
‘Understand factors behind failure of Kaleshwaram’
Revanth urged engineers to draw lessons from projects such as Nagarjunasagar, Srisailam, Osmansagar and Himayatsagar, rather than Kaleshwaram.
The CM asked the recruits to visit and assess these sites to understand the factors behind the Kaleshwaram failure.
The chief minister reiterated that irrigation remains a top priority for his government. He said the administration is targeting the completion of projects that are 75% done. He also blamed the previous government for delays, claiming that negligence led to the collapse of the SLBC tunnel, resulting in eight deaths.
“In 2024, we appointed 738 assistant executive engineers and junior assistants. Now, we are adding 423 more AEs and JTOs. This brings the total new appointments in the department to 1,161,” Revanth stated.