Vigilance recommends action against 57 officials
PNS|Hyderabad
In a sweeping indictment stemming from the structural failure of the Medigadda Barrage, the Telangana Vigilance Commission has recommended criminal, pension, and departmental proceedings against 57 officials from the Irrigation and CAD Department, along with recovery action against the contractor L&T-PES (JV).
The recommendations span serving, retired, and even entry-level engineers, with the Commission placing responsibility for the collapse of Block No: 7 on systemic negligence and violations of engineering norms.
The report submitted on March 18, 2025, was released just before KCR was supposed to appear before the Kaleshwaram probe panel.
While criminal action under the IPC, Prevention of Corruption Act and Dam Safety Act has been sought against 17 officials and the contractor, the Commission also directed major penalty proceedings under the Telangana Civil Services (CC&A) Rules, 1991, against 33 officials.
They are Bhupathi Raju Nagendra Rao, V. Phanibhushan Sharma, S. Venkata Ramana Reddy, Ch. Thirupathi Rao, Sardar Omkar Singh, SL Bheema Raju and Ajmeera Suresh Kumar, who served in key posts in the Mahadevpur, Ramagundam and Ambatpally divisions of the Kaleshwaram Project.
Pension-related disciplinary action was recommended against seven retired engineers under Rule 54 of the Telangana Revised Pension Rules, 1980.
They are former Engineer-in-Chief Cheeti Muralidhar, former Kaleshwaram Engineer-in-Chief N. Venkateshwarlu, Gajjela Hari Hara Chary, B. Venkateshwarlu, and A. Narender Reddy.
The report noted these officials’ continued involvement in project decisions even post-retirement, justifying retrospective action.
The Vigilance Commission stressed that even two Finance Department officials, designated as Drawing and Disbursing Officers, should be brought under disciplinary proceedings, subject to the concurrence of the Finance Department.
The Commission did not spare the top brass. It called for “action deemed fit” against the Principal Secretaries of I & CAD and Finance Departments for “blindly approving” the redesign of the barrage from 2015 till its collapse in October 2023, without examining its technical and financial implications.
The Commission also flagged severe procedural failures, such as untrained Assistant Executive Engineers (AEEs) being posted at major works, improper recording of measurements in MBs, and unchecked deployment of construction machinery. It criticised officials for relying on contractor-led construction methods without scrutiny. Many MBs had overwriting, unverified measurements, and code violations, the report said.
On the contractor front, L&T-PES (JV) was held responsible for the poor execution of secant piles and misrepresenting work completion under RE-1 and RE-II agreements.
The Commission advised cost recovery and legal action for this misrepresentation, stating that “they claimed completion certificates despite pending works.”
As for structural reforms, the Commission advised standardisation of O&M agreements, mandatory third-party model studies, strict enforcement of PWD D-Code, and a clear definition of engineer responsibilities to avoid blame shifting.
It also urged a review of lump sum contracts and reinforcement of clauses pertaining to contractor accountability in quality failures.
The report ends with instructions to the I & CAD Department to submit a compliance report on actions taken and warns that the actions taken must be as per the precedents set by the Supreme Court in allowing parallel criminal and disciplinary action.
