Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and Siricilla MLA K T Rama Rao on Friday dismissed the damages caused to the Medigadda barrage of the mighty Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project on Godavari river as very minor and they can be repaired without any problems.
KTR, who led a delegation of BRS leaders along with his cousin and former irrigation minister T Harish Rao, to the Medigadda barrage site to inspect the damages caused to the barrage, alleged that the Congress government led by chief minister A Revanth Reddy was deliberately avoiding undertaking repairs only to malign the previous BRS government.
Speaking to reporters later, KTR alleged that the Congress leaders were trying to sling mud at the previous BRS government alleging that it had wasted Rs one lakh crore in constructing the project.
“Out of 1.6 km long Medigadda barrage, there are damages only in a portion of 50 metres. But the Congress leaders say the entire project has become useless. We demand that the state government take expert advice and see that the damages were repaired before the next flood season,” he said.
He pointed out that such damages had occurred even in other projects in the past.
“The Kadem project and Gundlavagu project built by the Congress governments in the past were washed away twice. There were water leakages even in bigger projects like Nagarjunasagar and Srisailam. But we had never played politics over these damages,” he said.
Harish Rao demanded that the state government should call for an all-party meeting to discuss the issue and the BRS would make appropriate suggestions on the same.
“The Kaleshwaram project had provided irrigation facilities to lakhs of acres and also resulted in the increase of groundwater level. Because of the project, the cropping area also increased substantially,” he said.