A BRS delegation led by former irrigation minister T Harish Rao was on Thursday stopped by police from visiting the accident site of the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) near Domalapenta in the Nagarkurnool district of Telangana.
Irked by the police for imposing prohibitory orders within the 5 km radius of the site, the BRS leaders sat on a protest dharna on the road. The party’s grouse is that while the authorities had allowed access to the area for everyone for the past five days, prohibitory orders were imposed only after its leaders announced their decision to visit the site.
State Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy dismissed the allegations.
Quite a few former ministers, like G Jagdish Reddy, V Srinivas Goud, and S Niranjan Reddy, were part of the delegation that was on its way to the accident site before the police stopped it at a check post on the road leading to Domalapenta. Following this, an altercation ensued between the police and the BRS leaders after the former informed that people were not being allowed at the site as it might hamper rescue operations and also because it was considered risky for the onlookers.
“Is there any restriction in meeting Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who is at the SLBC? When MLAs and MLCs come to meet him as Opposition leaders, they (the government) are using police to stop them. What kind of state is this? What kind of governance is this? If the government is not negligent in its relief efforts, why is it not allowing them to meet,” asked Harish Rao.
The BRS leader then alleged that there have been mishaps at four irrigation projects – Peddavagu, Sunkishala, Vattem pump house, and SLBC tunnel in the past 15 months of the Congress rule in the state. He slammed the government saying in the six days since the accident took place on 22 February, the state government managed to remove only a handful of the soil accumulated inside the canal.
He questioned the sincerity of the government in saving the lives of the eight men.
Rao called the government “clueless” and accused ministers of simply flying in and out without achieving much on the ground. He asked the government to expedite rescue work pointing out that the conveyor belt was yet to be repaired.
N Uttam Kumar Reddy lashed out at Rao, saying, “Every single thing he said is a total lie. It is because of the BRS government’s neglect that this failure has happened. It is their failure that the project is incomplete. Otherwise, this project would have been complete and Telangana would have got 30 tmc water from Srisailam.”