BRS hits out at double standards of NDSA to victimise Telangana ryots
HYDERABAD Senior leader of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and three-time former MP B. Vinod Kumar accused the Congress and BJP-led NDA governments in the State
HYDERABAD Senior leader of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and three-time former MP B. Vinod Kumar accused the Congress and BJP-led NDA governments in the State and at the Centre, respectively, of conspiring against the farming community of Telangana with political vengeance on BRS and said that was the reason why water from Kannepally pumphouse was not lifted in the name of NDSA report. He also accused the Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) of adopting double standards in case of Polavaram and Kaleshwaram projects since it had not completed the investigation/study into the damages suffered by Polavaram project in the regimes of both N.
Chandrababu Naidu in the past and now and also during the Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy rule in between. Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Mr. Vinod Kumar pointed out that wrong design and poor quality of work (execution) had led to washing away and other damages to the diaphragm wall and cofferdam 13 times and the Centre had spared a whopping ₹9,600 crore for the repairs itself. It was not an allegation but was mentioned in black and white in the annual report of the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA), which is executing the project.
The NDSA was also yet to submit its report on damages suffered by the project. However, neither Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy nor Mr. Chandrababu Naidu had blamed each other on the damages. At the same time, the NDA had given its final report in case of Kaleshwaram barrages in 2025 itself but the State government had failed to implement it for the last 18 months forgetting the fact that it was free to take decisions with regard to lifting of water without closing the gates of the three barrages — Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla, Mr. Vinod Kumar said.
He alleged that the requests of BRS to the government to lift water where there were sufficient flows in the Godavari river fell on deaf ears and now there were poor flows due to lack of rains in the catchment areas following the El Nino impact. The BRS leader said he was expecting Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy to take up the NDSA issue with the Centre during their ongoing visit to Delhi, but they didn’t.
The BriefWire