KTR visits the Medigadda barrage on Friday

BRS leader K.T. Rama Rao on Friday visited the Medigadda barrage, built amid great fanfare by the BRS government but which sank at the end of its tenure, and the Annaram barrage which sprang a leak. With these structures as the backdrop, Rama Rao claimed that he had gone there to fend off the "false propaganda" being made against the Kaleshwaram project. 

"The sinking of three piers in the world's largest lift irrigation project in Medigadda is being shown to make the claim that `1 lakh crore has gone waste. Let us reject this false propaganda," Rama Rao said, ignoring the fact that the barrage is the lynchpin of the scheme without which the Kaleshwaram project could be rendered useless.

Rama Rao also ignored that authority after authority has faulted the BRS government for the poor design of the scheme and the barrages, for ignoring vital parameters, for ignoring the advise of experts against building the project, among others. Speaking with the media at the Annaram barrage, he said, "The visit is



only the first step in a series of efforts to put the reality of Kaleshwaram before the people. We will visit the projects, reservoirs, canals and tunnels and explain to the people the significance of those structures." Engineering experts will be part of the teams.

He reiterated that if the fields of farmers were to be saved from drying, the Kaleshwaram scheme was the only source. Former irrigation minister T. Harish Rao claimed that the announcement by the Congress government that the barrage would be repaired was a victory. He asserted that the Congress was eyeing to make political gains by slinging mud at the BRS. "If the government wants they can call the opposition and seek suggestions. 

Revanth Reddy is trying to efface the legacy of KCR," Harish Rao claimed. The project had led to an increase in water tables and area under cultivation. “The Medigadda barrage should be repaired before the onset of monsoon,” the former minister demanded.