Medigadda misinformation campaign a case of conspiracy, says V Prakash Rao

The hue and cry over the sagging of a few piers of the Medigadda Barrage is part of a bigger conspiracy that can be attributed to vested interests in Andhra Pradesh, said V Prakash Rao

Hyderabad: The hue and cry over the sagging of a few piers of the Medigadda Barrage is part of a bigger conspiracy that can be attributed to vested interests in Andhra Pradesh, with leaders like PCC president A Revanth Reddy being party to the conspiracy, according to V Prakash Rao, chairman, Telangana Water Resources Development Corporation.

Stating that these conspirators were out to scuttle the progress of the State that was nurtured so well and for so long by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, Prakash Rao said safeguarding the interest of Andhra Pradesh was the sole agenda of Revanth Reddy. He would not mind wrecking the barrage to serve his political agenda as AP wants no damming and no drawl of Godavari water in Telangana.

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Observing that the sinking of barrage pillars was a case of sheer accident, Prakash Rao said a pair of piers or a few more impacted for one reason or the other would in no way impact the functional status of the whole of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project. The Medigadda barrage alone was not Kaleshwaram. It is one of the three key barrages that are part of the 28 packages in 7 links of the project. It has 203 km of tunnels, 1,531 km long flow canals, 22 lifts, 17 reservoirs storing 141 TMC water besides 91 pumps for lifting water. At the same time, there was no doubt that Medigadda is one of the key structures that is an integral part of the Kaleshwaram project.

Pointing out that the awareness levels of people in the State were high, he said they would not be carried away with the misinformation campaign that was being stoked making the BRS leadership its sole target. There was nothing more left to be proved about the transformation the irrigation sector had undergone in the last 10 years and how the Kaleshwaram project could serve as the catalyst to realise the dream of making Telangana State the granary of modern times to support the country. The people of the State would not forgive the forces behind the conspiracy, he said.

Only an accident

Prakash Rao said there was no scope to subscribe to the theory that the piers went down because of the design. The designs were approved by WAPCOS Limited, earlier known as Water and Power Consultancy Services (India) Limited, an Indian consultancy service provider under the Central Water Commission. The WAPCOS is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Jal Shakti. If any accusing fingers is pointing at the design, that would be the failure of the WAPCOS and the CWC, he said.

The National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) has attributed the sinking of piers to multiple reasons. It should not have rushed in haste with its findings on the issue without an end to end inspection of the impacted stretches of the structure. The physical inspection of the piers would be possible only by emptying the water in its storage. With over 16 tmc of water in its storage, it would be natural that water gets percolated beyond the river bed. The storage at its gross level would add to the load on the structure. The NDSA report should have been prepared after taking the opinion of the State Dam Safety Organisation also, he said.

The State Irrigation authorities have submitted all documents pertaining to 20 aspects of the dam construction that were asked for by the NDSA six member team deputed to Medigadda as part of the stock taking mission. Such a team of experts should not play into the hands of political leaders, he said, adding that the team had delivered a half-baked report in a matter of days without knowing fully what had caused the accident while the NDSA usually took even years to respond to such incidents elsewhere in the country.