Annamayya Project: YSRCP-TDP spar over Shekhawat remarks

Amaravati: Union minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat's observation in the Rajya Sabha that Annamayya project breach was due to the failure of the state government came in handy for the YSRCP and the TDP for political sparring on Saturday. He was making an example of the Annamayya project to emphasise on the necessity of the Dam Safety Bill introduced by the Centre.

YSRCP MP V Vijayasai Reddy, had extended full support to the Bill on behalf of the party and even stated that it was the late Chief Minister, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who proposed such a measure. He had cited the condition of the decades old dams in the country including in Andhra Pradesh while welcoming the Bill.

TDP president, N Chandrababu Naidu, said Shekhawat's latest comment in the Parliament on the recent AP flood havoc once again exposed the negligence of the YSRCP government. He said the state government was answerable and the Chief Minister should explain the reasons for the neglect.

Addressing the media here on Saturday, Naidu said the state government brought disgrace to the state as Annamayya breach led to the death of 62 persons and a loss of Rs 6,000 crore. He demanded an ex gratia of Rs 1 crore to the families of each of the deceased. He said one of the sluice gates of the project could not be lifted due to the state of disrepair which led to the breach.

Refuting the allegation of Naidu, irrigation minister, P Anil Kumar Yadav, said the project suffered breaches due to sudden inflow of floods from upstream in a span of one-and-a-half hour. The project gates could not withstand such a huge flood flow which was beyond the capacity of the dam.

"While this being the case, the Union minister was misled by Rajya Sabha member C M Ramesh who defected to the BJP from the TDP. Naidu's charge that the state government had neglected the dam or its sluices is baseless. The floods were of in a huge scale and it was an accident," he said.

The minister said the project suffered breaches due to sudden inflow of floods from upstream in a span of one-and-a-half hours. The project gates could not withstand such a huge flood. "All the gates were functional, but because of the heavy floods, there was a pressure on the bund and it breached," he explained.