Defying engineers’ advice, KCR chose Medigadda, alleges Revanth Reddy

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy demanded that former Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao seek forgiveness from the people of the State for ignoring the Retired Engineers Committee report on Godavari and Pranahitha that advised the then KCR Government against building Barrage at Medigadda.

“In 2015 different surveys were undertaken by the five-member committee on changing the project site from Tummidihatti to Medigadda. Following that the Committee in its 14-page report suggested that Medigadda will not be a suitable place,” Chief Minister said.

He said that it was KCR who had suggested building the Medigadda Barrage at the current place. "Gods might have told him to undertake Medigadda while the engineers clearly said that the site was not suitable," he said.

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He argued that both KCR and Harish Rao had been cheating the people of the State that huge tracts of agricultural land on the Maharashtra side might have been submerged if the Pranahitha Chevella project was built at Tummaidihatti, “The real submergence was only 1,850 acres of Patta land if the project was built at a height of 150 meters. Finally, the agreement with Maharashtra was that the project height would be limited to 151 meters,” the Chief Minister said adding that the committee then at the same breadth opposed the new site proposed by the then Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister accused Harish Rao of corruption as Irrigation Minister, saying that KCR sacked Harish Rao in 2018 only because he was involved in large-scale corruption. He also criticised former Minister Sabita Indrareddy for not coming to the rescue of the Congress party that played an instrumental role in adding Chevella to the scope of the Pranahita project.