PNS n hyderabad
Irrigation and Civil Supplies Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy squarely blamed the BRS government for engineering the “biggest man-made disaster” in India’s post-Independence history, the structural collapse of the Kaleshwaram Project.
Presenting the final report of the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) at the secretariat on Tuesday, he said all three barrages – Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla – have collapsed due to faulty design, poor construction and mismanagement.
He said that Telangana is now paying Rs 16,000 crore annually as interest on loans and repayments for a project that has not only failed structurally but has also pushed the state into deep financial crisis. “This is not a natural disaster. This is a collapse caused by irresponsible, unscientific decisions made by the BRS admin,” he declared.
He asserted that the Kaleshwaram Project was built not on scientific principles, but for political gimmicks and propaganda purposes.
Referring to the NDSA findings, he said safety protocols were ignored, geotechnical studies were incomplete, borehole investigations were inadequate, and no maintenance records existed. “The warning signs were visible as early as 2019, but the BRS government ignored them,” he said.
He criticised former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for launching Kaleshwaram after abandoning the original Dr BR Ambedkar Pranahita–Chevella Project.
“They falsely claimed there was no water at Tummadihatti. But over Rs 1,800 crore was spent without securing inter-state agreements. Later, they used post-facto approvals to cover up Rs 1.81 lakh crore worth of irrigation expenditure,” he said.
Uttam said the barrages were designed to regulate only 2 TMCs of water, but over 10 TMCs were stored in each for publicity, causing foundation damage and structural collapse. He described the BRS government’s actions as “a political stunt that ended in economic disaster.”
