Stuck in blame game, Congress govt ignores recommendations for Medigadda repairs

Despite repeated recommendations from the NDSA, Vigilance Department, and Justice PC Ghose Commission, the Congress government has delayed Medigadda barrage repairs, affecting Kaleshwaram irrigation and leaving Telangana farmers vulnerable, while prioritising political rhetoric over practical action.

Hyderabad: If one thread runs common through the NDSA report, the Vigilance inquiry and the Justice PC Ghose Commission, it is this: repair Medigadda barrage and restore water to Telangana’s farmers.

Yet, for nearly two years, the Congress government under Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has chosen political point-scoring over practical action.

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In its report, the Ghose Commission minced no words. While refraining from commenting on the State’s actions, the Commission endorsed NDSA’s recommendations to “take steps to prevent further damage and to protect the projects and also for carrying out the investigations/tests, suggested by the NDSA with organisations such as CSMS, New Delhi/ CWPRS, Pune/ NGRI, Hyderabad, in accordance with the provisions of law in the matter, in the larger public interest”.

The NDSA report earlier had urged the government to act with urgency and relay displaced blocks at Medigadda, expedite rectification works at Annaram and Sundilla, and work “day and night” before the monsoon. Even the Vigilance Department, while restricting itself to Medigadda, flagged the same need: rectify, restore, repair.

But instead of mobilising engineers and resources, the Congress government preferred rhetoric. Instead of protecting Telangana’s irrigation backbone, it turned the issue into a political weapon against former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and former Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao.

While Congress leaders thunder in Assembly debates and order inquiry after inquiry, the core issue of repairing Medigadda barrage remains untouched. Farmers who depend on the Kaleshwaram project for their crops continue to pay the price for this deliberate inaction. Incidentally, the government is also not even required to spend any funds as the executing agency was responsible for the repairs till 2025 as per the contract.

It is unclear whether or not and when the government initiates the repair works, but by refusing to act on the common recommendation, the Revanth Reddy government is drawing flak for sacrificing the needs of Telangana’s farmers for political gains.

Irrigation experts warned that prolonged delay in taking up repairs could damage the Medigadda barrage further.