The major accident that happened in Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Project in Yellur village of Nagarkurnool district on Friday night has exposed the indifferent attitude of the Telangana government.
The entire pump house of the project was submerged in water due to explosion of the basement and gushing out of water from the surge pool. Apparently, the project could not withstand the pressure of huge inflows into the Krishna river in the backwaters of Srisailam.
State Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said the entire incident, resulting in loss of property worth thousands of crores, was a man-made mistake. He demanded judicial probe into the submergence of the pump house.
Uttam pointed out that an expert committee, constituted by the present government, had submitted a report on 20th June, 2016 making several recommendations for the safety of pump house.
However, the State Government ignored the recommendations and carried out underground works of Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project within 400-metre radius of KLIS pump house. He said those explosions led to the submergence of the pump house inundating 10 out of its 14 floors.
He said chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao should accept the responsibility for the entire damage as he also holds the Irrigation portfolio. He said that the damage was so enormous that it would hit the water supply to the farmers in that ayacut.
The TPCC chief demanded that the incident should be probed in a fair and transparent manner. He said a judicial probe should be conducted to identify the causes and punish those responsible for the incident.
He also condemned the arrest of Congress leaders who tried to visit the KLIS pump house.