BRS calls for ‘Chalo Medigadda’ on March 1; KTR sees conspiracy against lifeline of TS

KTR said the BRS would organise a "Chalo Medigadda" programme on March 1 to expose the sinister designs of the Revanth Reddy government behind the vicious campaign launched by it against the project which served the State as its lifeline.

Hyderabad: BRS working president and former Minister K.T.Rama Rao on Tuesday said there was a larger conspiracy behind the deliberate delay in rehabilitation of Medigadda barrage and other components of the multi-stage Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS).

Addressing a news conference at Telangana Bhavan, he said the BRS would organise a “Chalo Medigadda” programme on March 1 to expose the sinister designs of the Revanth Reddy government behind the vicious campaign launched by it against the project which served the State as its lifeline.

---

The Congress government had conspired to leave the project to its fate by ignoring the urgent need for immediate repairs to the three piers in Medigadda found to be sinking and addressing the seepage issues noticed in Annaram barrage so that it would get washed away during the monsoon that comes with flooding in the river.

The government was dillydallying on the project rehabilitation as part of a hidden agenda it was pursuing to trivialize the benefits being delivered by the project that was designed to make the water-starved regions of the State richer by 240 tmc of water drawn from Godavari that would otherwise have been left untapped. The government had purposefully shelved the project expansion plans intended to add one more tmc (a day) to the water drawl capacity.

All the elected representatives from the party, including MPs, MLAs, MLCs and former legislators, would be taken to the project as art of the Chalo Medigadda programme on March 1. Other components of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project including the new reservoirs and massive structures that were built as part of the project, would be reached out to in the next two or three spells. Media teams would also be taken to the project as part of the mission.

He said the immediate need was to put up a coffer dam shielding the sagging structure and resume pumping of water by putting into operation at least a single pump at Medigadda so that the irrigation support was extended to the Kharif ayacut of the project.

The rehabilitation of Medigadda would not take more than couple of months if the government had a sincere approach to the task on hand. People would not justify it if the Congress leadership wanted to wreak vengeance on the farming community under the project for the sake of the animosity it has been harbouring against the BRS leadership, he warned.