5 reasons why Kaleshwaram project has taken centre stage in Telangana poll battle

It is envisaged to provide water for irrigation and drinking purposes across about 45 lakh acres in 20 out of 31 districts in Telangana, apart from Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The first phase of this project was inaugurated by KCR in June 2019.

Rahul Gandhi and Telangana Congress chief A Revanth Reddy at Medigadda barrage (Express Photo)

Row amid polls

Several piers of the Medigadda barrage in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district under the Kaleshwaram project were found damaged on October 21. The assistant executive engineer, who was on duty on that day, filed a complaint at the Mahadevpur police station that he heard a loud sound and on inspection found at least three piers had suffered damage and sunk. Seizing on the issue in the run-up to the November 30 Assembly polls, the BJP and the Congress hit out at the BRS government, alleging corruption and design flaws in the project.

NDSA report

The state BJP urged Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekawat to send a central team to examine the damages in the project. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and state Congress president A Revanth Reddy visited the Medigadda barrage on November 2.

A team from the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) visited the site and submitted a report on November 3, blaming faults in the planning and design of the barrage. The team said that

a combination of issues involving planning, design, quality control, and operation and maintenance led to the damage. It suggested that the reconstruction of the piers under block 7 of the barrage should be taken up from its foundation level.

The KCR government rejected the NDSA report, charging that it was prepared in haste without considering all the information and details that it had submitted to the panel. The Telangana Irrigation Department’s additional chief secretary Rajat Kumar wrote to NDSA chairman Sanjay Kumar Sibal, stating that the comments made in the report were “unsubstantiated”. Kumar stated that the panel criticised the Kaleshwaram project without conducting a thorough investigation into the cause of the damage.

Political slugfest

The row surrounding the Medigadda barrage, also known as Laxmi barrage, has sparked political fireworks ahead of the polls.

State BJP president and Union minister G Kishan Reddy has demanded a CBI probe into the project. He has accused the BRS government of indulging in corruption due to which, he alleged, poor quality of project work was done.

Kishan Reddy said the entire Kaleshwaram project should be investigated. “The project was constructed by spending over Rs 1 lakh crore and the state government borrowed heavily. The design, engineering, maintenance, quality have failed. There should be a probe,’’ he said.

The Telangana Congress has also written to President Droupadi Murmu, seeking a CBI probe into the project.

Rahul Gandhi called the Kaleshwaram project the “ATM of KCR family’’, alleging that corruption in it benefited the CM’s family. It drew a sharp reaction from the BRS whose working president K T Rama Rao, son of KCR, hit back at the Opposition leaders for politicising the issue.

In their election rally speeches, the Congress leaders, including Revanth Reddy and its Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikaramarka, and the BJP leaders, including Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay Kumar, have been targeting the KCR dispensation over alleged corruption in the project.

What next?

The BRS has maintained that the damage was “not as serious” as being projected by the Opposition parties in their poll campaigns. The L&T, which built the barrage, has stated that it was working on repairing the damage.