Telangana BJP president and Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy has said that the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) expert committee’s report laid bare the apparent deficiencies in the construction of Medigadda (Laxmi) barrage of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP), raising serious concerns over the safety aspects and fate of the project.
A detailed investigation into the Medigadda episode is imperative to unravel the facts behind the sinking of the piers of the barrage of the much-touted KLIP, he said, while speaking to the media after visiting the Medigadda barrage at Ambatpally in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district on Saturday.
Rajya Sabha MP and BJP’s OBC Morcha national president K. Laxman, Telangana BJP election campaign committee chairman and Huzurabad MLA Eatala Rajender, and Dubbak MLA M. Raghunandan Rao accompanied him.
“The KLIP was built at a huge cost by resorting to heavy borrowings and the cracks in some pillars of the barrage revealed defects in design, quality control and operation and maintenance,” he charged.
“Now that the fate of Medigadda barrage, which is considered the backbone of the KLIP, is at stake, its implications for the reservoirs, including the Mallannasagar, need to be examined in detail,” he said.
“Let Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao write a letter seeking a CBI inquiry into the Medigadda barrage episode. Within 15 minutes of receiving the letter, the inquiry will be ordered,” Mr. Kishan Reddy said in response to a question.
