Harish Rao hits back at Uttam Kumar Reddy over NDSA report

Senior BRS leader and former Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao strongly rebutted criticism of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project, accusing Telangana Irrigation Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy of spreading “white lies” about the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) report.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Rao dismissed claims that the project had failed, emphasizing that water is still being supplied from its reservoirs to irrigate fields across the state.

How is water still being drawn?

“If the Kaleshwaram project is truly defective, how is water still being drawn from Kondapochamma Sagar, Mallanna Sagar, and Mid-Manair reservoirs?” Rao asked.

He argued that the continued functioning of these facilities contradicts Reddy’s claims that the Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla barrages are unusable due to serious design and construction flaws.

Uttam releases NDSA report

Earlier the same day, Minister Reddy released the final NDSA report, calling the project a “man-made disaster” due to structural failures at Block-7 of the Medigadda Barrage.

The report highlighted serious issues such as sand piping, cavity formation, and structural distress. Reddy blamed the previous BRS government for gross mismanagement, stating the damages had caused losses exceeding Rs 1 lakh crore and saddled the state with Rs 16,000 crore in annual loan repayments.

NDSA Report or NDA-Congress report!

Harish Rao countered these accusations, dismissing them as politically timed to coincide with BRS’s silver jubilee celebrations. He said the NDSA report recommended the rebuilding of only Block-7, not the demolition of the entire barrage. He also questioned why similar urgency wasn’t shown toward the Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh, where collapsed diaphragm walls have been reported. “The NDSA rushed to Medigadda in five days, yet turned a blind eye to Polavaram,” Rao remarked.

He also challenged Reddy’s claim of a Rs 1 lakh crore price tag for the project, asserting that actual expenditures under the BRS government totaled around Rs 90,000 crore. Rao defended relocating the project from Tummidihetti to Medigadda, saying it was a strategic decision based on scientific evaluations and objections from Maharashtra. The relocation, he noted, increased the storage capacity significantly—from 16 TMC to 141 TMC.