Kaleshwaram at loss, TS govt blames Centre

The prestigious Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project incurred a loss of Rs 20 crore due to heavy rains. The agency, which is constructing the project, has taken up repairs of the pump houses. It will take about 45 days to complete the repairs before it can become operational again

Hyderabad: Special Chief Secretary to Irrigation Rajath Kumar blamed the Union government for the damages that had occurred to the projects and bridges across Godavari following recent heavy floods.

The Special Chief Secretary held a review of floods and damages to the projects with all irrigation engineers here on Wednesday. He said the prestigious Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation project had incurred a loss of Rs 20 crore due to heavy rains. The agency, which was constructing the project, had taken up repairs of the pump houses. He said it would take about 45 days to complete the repair works before they can become operational again.

Speaking to the media, the Irrigation Secretary said that the state government brought to the notice of the Centre about the Polavaram backwaters long back but no action has been taken. All the historical places like Bhadrachalam and other projects were facing threat of submergence due to heavy floods caused by the backwaters from Polavaram in Godavari.

He said that backwaters would not only affect the historical structures like Sri Rama temple and 'Parnashala' but also cause huge damages to the crops. The Centre should take a call on the concerns raised by the Telangana government on Polavaram backwaters. But to date, the Centre had done nothing, he said. He further said about one lakh acres would be submerged once the Polavaram project was ready.

He also alleged that the Centre did not alert the state government on rain forecasts resulting in heavy rains. The IMD (Indian Meteorological Department) had failed in anticipating the intensity of rain.

Appreciating the efforts made by the Irrigation officials, he said their efforts prevented a major disaster at the Kadem project which received all-time high inflows in 100 years in the old Adilabad district. He refuted allegations made by the opposition parties on the failure of the state government in containing the rain-related damages at the project sites.