Kaleshwaram a 'Disaster': Congress Slams BRS Over Hyderabad Water Crisis
Telangana's Congress government and BRS clash over the Hyderabad water crisis, with ministers calling the Kaleshwaram project an engineering disaster.
A fierce political war has erupted in Telangana as the Congress government and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) trade heavy blows over the ongoing Hyderabad water crisis. While BRS leaders accuse the current administration of wasting precious river water, Congress ministers have branded the Kaleshwaram project—the crown jewel of the previous regime—as a catastrophic engineering failure born out of corruption.
BRS Alleges Water Mismanagement
The conflict intensified on Saturday when BRS MLAs and senior party leaders conducted an inspection of the Medigadda Barrage and the Kannepalli (Lakshmi) Pump House. During their visit, the BRS leadership pointed toward vast quantities of Godavari water flowing downstream toward the sea, arguing that this water should have been diverted to alleviate the drinking water shortages currently plaguing Hyderabad.
The BRS leaders alleged that the Congress government has failed to operate the pumps at Kannepalli effectively, claiming that this negligence has directly aggravated the city's water scarcity.
Congress Hits Back: 'Corruption and Incompetence'
Telangana Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy did not mince words in his response, launching a scathing attack on the previous BRS (formerly TRS) administration. He asserted that the failures of the state's irrigation infrastructure are a direct result of the BRS's incompetence and systemic corruption.
Reddy defended the current government's record, stating that agricultural metrics have actually peaked under Congress rule. He highlighted that the utilization of Godavari and Krishna waters, as well as paddy production and overall agricultural acreage, have reached record highs since the change in government.
"The irrigation failures and mismanagement occurred under the TRS government. The Medigadda Barrage and Kaleshwaram project have collapsed due to TRS corruption and incompetence," Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy told reporters.
'An Engineering Disaster'
Adding to the critique, Minister Vivek Venkata Swamy described the Kaleshwaram venture as an "engineering disaster." He contrasted the crumbling state of the BRS-led project with legacy dams built during previous Congress tenures, such as Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Pochampad, and Yellampalli, which he noted remain fully functional and intact.
According to Swamy, the damage to the barrages is a result of fundamentally faulty designs implemented by the previous administration.
The Technical Battle: Fixing the Collapse
As the political rhetoric heats up, technical experts are working to stabilize the damaged sites. Col Parikshit Mehra, Chairman and Convenor of the committee overseeing the rehabilitation of the Sundilla, Annaram, and Medigadda barrages, revealed that rigorous testing is underway following a central safety review by the NDA.
Mehra explained that previous efforts had significant "lacunas," leading the current committee to implement advanced protocols over the last year. These include:
- Geotechnical and geophysical testing.
- Cone penetration tests.
- Low-frequency ground-penetrating radar tests to better understand the ground stability beneath the structures.
'Hollow Posturing'
The BRS's inspection tour of the Medigadda site was dismissed by Minister D. Sridhar Babu as nothing more than a political stunt. He questioned why the BRS leaders were visiting a site they themselves were responsible for ruining.
Sridhar Babu remarked that it was "good" the BRS leaders were witnessing the ruins of their own creation, adding that their mistakes caused the barrage to sink and resulted in massive losses to the state exchequer.