AICC secretary Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy blamed the TRS government for the submergence of pump house at Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Project, saying that he had warned of such an accident in the Assembly in 2016 itself.
He said the accident was due to the redesigning of the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) and had cautioned about the impending dangers in 2016 itself on the floor of the Assembly.
However, the government went ahead with the redesigning of the pump house of the PRLIS by considering the report from its departmental committee that included even a contractor as one of its members while three other committees had rejected the redesign.
He said Penta Reddy, who was felicitated as the father of lift irrigation projects by Chief Minister K. Chandrasehkar Rao and then Irrigation Minister Harish Rao, had also cautioned and warned the government not to go ahead with the redesigning.
Even the steering committee had called it a futile approach both technically and economically in June 2016 and warned of the difficulties to be faced in case the project was executed.
The re-design proposal was declined not only by the steering committee but also by a joint steering committee. But with an intention to grab commissions, contractors along with the government had gone ahead with the re-designing disregarding all the committee reports given by several irrigation experts, he alleged.
The former MLA said that TRS ministers and Palamuru MLAs should be held accountable for the loss of more than ₹1,000 crore incurred and should resign from their posts immediately.
