BJP using NDSA like CBI and ED to target rivals: V Prakash Rao

The BJP government at the Centre was making use of the NDSA like other national agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, CBI and CAG to target the rival political parties including the BRS , Prakash Rao said.

Hyderabad: Taking serious note of the four-month time-frame set by the newly constituted committee of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) to study and examine Medigadda and other barrages of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), former chairman of the Telangana Water Resources Development Corporation V Prakash Rao said on Sunday that both the BJP government at the Centre and Congress government in the State were out to wreak havoc on the State by playing politics with the world’s largest lift irrigation project.

The sense of urgency with which both the governments were expected to address the issue was totally missing in their approach. The urgency with which union Minister G Kishan Reddy knocked at the doors of the NDSA drawing its attention to sagging piers of Medigadda ahead of the Assembly elections was found to be missing subsequently. The BJP government at the Centre was making use of the NDSA like other national agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, CBI and CAG to target the rival political parties including the BRS, he said.

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The Dam Safety Act 2021, had empowered the NDSA to respond and act suo moto on safety issues of such projects. It should have acted in earnest after the first visit of its team to Medigadda in November last and recommended measures by now for taking up repairs on the impacted structures, he said, wondering why the State government was trying to delay the rehabilitation programme of the dam leaving the farming community in its command area to its fate.

Sounding a warning to the State government against any further delay in taking up repairs on Medigadda, he said in case of heavy floods in Godavari, as experienced in 2022, the criminal neglect shown by the administration would render the barrage more vulnerable and the State and its people would pay a heavy price for it. The barrage rehabilitation would have been completed on war footing by now if the BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao got reelected as the Chief Minister.

Chandrashekhar Rao would not have allowed the water from Annaram to be let off into the river and would have preferred to pump it to Mid Manair and Mallanna Sagar projects to meet the needs of the State during summer. He would have completed the construction of the coffer dam by now covering the impacted piers in Medigadda to make use of the 5000 cusecs of water being let off from the barrage untapped, he said.