Hyderabad: RS Praveen Kumar, the general secretary of BRS, stated that a pillar failure at the Medigadda Barrage is due to deliberate sabotage, not a natural cause. He urged for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to thoroughly examine the incident.
At a press conference in Telangana Bhavan on Saturday, he pointed out that the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project barrages—Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundilla—survived heavy floods in 2022. Kumar questioned why only Medigadda’s pillar collapsed without a clear reason. He also noted the absence of an investigation into a possible explosion and the lack of seismic activity reports in the area.
On October 22, 2023, an assistant engineer reported loud, explosion-like sounds at the barrage to the Mahadevapur police station, suspecting sabotage. Yet, no investigation has identified the culprits, according to Kumar.
He suggested that the event was a deliberate act to damage K Chandrashekhar Rao’s reputation. Kumar called for a SIT to probe the alleged explosions and check if leaders like A Revanth Reddy from Congress, and Bandi Sanjay and G Kishan Reddy from BJP, were involved. He recommended reviewing their phone records for any connections to the incident. Kumar criticized the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) for ignoring explosion claims and questioned their quick inspection of Medigadda after Union Minister Kishan Reddy’s letter, while overlooking a dam collapse in Uttarakhand.
Kumar alleged that the NDSA’s report highlighting design and construction flaws aimed to damage BRS’s image. He dismissed financial mismanagement allegations during BRS’s rule and accused Congress of spreading lies, like claims of “golden toilets” in Pragati Bhavan. He mentioned that Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, who currently lives there, laughed off these claims when asked.
