Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday urged Union Minister for Water Resources (Jal Shakti) Gajendra Singh Shekhawat to send a technical team to inquire into the recent flooding of the Kalwakurthy pump house allegedly due to the blasting works in the “wrongly” designed underground pump house of Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrgation Scheme (PRLIS) nearby.
In a communication to the Minister, a copy of which was released to the media, the BJP leader pointed out that there have been a series of “technical failures’ in the irrigation projects in TS resulting in loss of human lives and to the public exchequer. Hence, there was a need for a thorough technical scrutiny into all irrigation projects as “faulty design” is causing financial loss of thousands of crores plus water to lakhs of acres for irrigation and drinking water to lakhs of people are completely at stake.
Mr. Sanjay Kumar claimed that the pump house, motors and other installations/equipment of KLIS are completely submerged as a result of cracks developed due to the blast works being done for PRLIS. While KLIS is an existing project, PRLIS is new project under construction. An government expert committee has given a report stating that the proposed PRLIS underground pump house at 300 meters on the left side of the existing KLIS pump house is not “technically and financially feasible” and suggested for an open cut pumping station at 900 meters on the right side of KLIS, he said.
However, the committee report was ignored and the work on the underground pump house was sanctioned resulting in the present mishap to the KLIS pump house due to “faulty design and gross negligence” of technical parameters by the TRS government, he charged.
The Karimnagar MP claimed several irrigation projects are being taken up in TS with “faulty” designs and not adhering to the technical norms. Detailed project reports have not been submitted to the Krishna River Management and Godavari River Management Boards and no required statutory clearances were obtained from Central government.
He listed out the collapse of an under construction tunnel of the Kaleswaram project in 2017 which led to death of seven workers, leakages of Midmanair project and Kondapochammasagar reservoir, major fire mishap in Srisailam dam (left bank power house) which killed nine people, including five engineers, as examples of the government’s ineptitude.
Therefore, the Centre should insist on submission of DPRs of all projects to look into the “faulty” designs and ensure statutory clearances are taken to save lives, public money and protect legitimate interests of the people, added Mr. Sanjay Kumar.
