The National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) has advised the Telangana government to dewater another barrage of the controversial Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme after it showed signs of leakage similar to the Medigadda barrage as chief minister A Revanth Reddy accused his predecessor K Chandrasekhar Rao of ignoring the opinion of engineers while constructing the massive project.

There was fierce debate in the Assembly between treasury benches and the BRS as the former tabled a White Paper on irrigation accusing the previous government of large-scale irrigation while the latter accused the Congress of handing over key irrigation projects to the Centre against the interest of the state.

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Tabling the White Paper, state irrigation minister Uttam Kumar Reddy also made a power point presentation to explain the findings of various reports, including those from the Comptroller and Auditor General, Vigilance, and the NDSA, on the Medigadda barrage of KLIS, which showed leakages detected in October last year. “Leakage has also started in Annaram Barrage since yesterday. We have urgently called NSDA and they told us to dewater the barrage immediately,” he said. NSDA has agreed to depute a team soon to Annaram Barrage to inspect the damages.

Describing Kaleshwaram as the biggest scam in Independent India’s irrigation sector, the minister said that while the tender for the Medigadda barrage was initially set at Rs 1,800 crore, the state ultimately spent a staggering Rs 4,500 crore on it. The NDSA had cited the design, construction, and lack of maintenance as reasons behind the failure of the Medigadda barrage and since all three barrages, including Annaram and Sundilla, were constructed following the same design, they too were prone to failure. According to the White Paper, new irrigation projects could not be taken up since there were pending bills worth Rs 10,455 crore to contractors for the work completed.

However, BRS leader Harish Rao, who was the irrigation minister in the first term of the BRS government, called the White Paper a “false paper” and accused the ruling party of spreading Goebbels-like propaganda. He even tried to corner the government for handing over key projects on rivers Godavari and Krishna to the Centre.

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy reminded him that the previous government had constituted a committee of retired engineers to study the projects on river Godavari. Ignoring their advice to set up the barrage at Tummidhatti, KCR went ahead to construct it at Medigadda, Reddy said while tabling the report of retired engineers. “There is no clue which God had come in KCR’s dreams and given him the advice on Medigadda,” ridiculed the chief minister who suggested Harish Rao should confess before the judicial commission who designed the project. “The sin belongs to both of them,” he said. Earlier in the day, he also wished the former chief minister on his birthday.“May God grant KCR good health to play his part in the reconstruction of Telangana as an Opposition leader,” he said since the Leader of the Opposition has so far stayed away from the Assembly.