BRS demands judicial enquiry into check dam blast incident

The BRS has demanded a judicial enquiry into the blast at a check dam on the Manair river between Gumpula and Thanugula villages in Karimnagar. Party MLAs Gangula Kamalakar and P Koushik Reddy submitted a representation to District Collector Pamela Satpathy, alleging that the dam was deliberately destroyed with explosives by sand smugglers.

Karimnagar: BRS has demanded that the government order a judicial enquiry into the check dam blast incident which occurred in the Manair river between Gumpula-Thanugula villages.

In this regard, BRS MLAs Gangula Kamalakar and P Koushik Reddy along with other party workers submitted a representation to the district Collector Pamela Satpathy in Karimnagar on Friday.

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Speaking on the occasion, Kamalakar said that the check dam was not damaged accidentally due to heavy water flow and was blasted with bombs. Local farmers also told a BRS delegation led by T Harish Rao which inspected the spot recently.

Local people heard a loud blast in the night and suspected that the sand smugglers had demolished the check dam to clear the way for illegal transportation of sand.

Based on a complaint lodged by irrigation Divisional Engineer (DE) and Executive Engineer (EE), police registered an FIR but no action has been taken so far. There was a possibility of sidetracking the issue. So, they gave representation to the Collector for judicial enquiry besides making public the forensic lab report.

The BRS leaders along with party working president KT Rama Rao and Harish Rao will soon meet the DGP on the issue, he informed. Besides the Kaleshwaram project, about 20 check dams were constructed by the former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. As a result, the water table rose significantly and subsequently the cultivation area has also been expanded.

Reacting to comments that poor quality works done by the previous BRS government were the main reason for damage of the check dam, Kamalakar said that there was no truth in the allegation.

“If it was true, why was it not damaged when about 1.5 lakh cusecs of water flowed through the check dam?” he questioned. The BRS government constructed 27 check dams in total.

Stating that they would continue their protest till the accused were arrested, he said that if necessary, they would approach the union Home Minister to get the information about bombs used to blast the check dam.