TDLP blames 'Dhana Yagnam' for crest gate damage

Mangalagiri: TDP Legislature Party Deputy Leader Nimmala Ramanaidu on Friday blamed poor maintenance by the YSRCP government for the washing away of the crest gate of Pulichintala irrigation project in the latest flood in the Krishna river.

Ramanaidu said that the government and the irrigation minister did not bother to ensure flood cushion maintenance works which eventually led to the collapse of the gate and the river wastefully flowing into the sea. It was a sheer betrayal of the farmers that the Jagan Mohan Reddy regime was ignoring the maintenance and operation of the irrigation projects as per the prescribed norms.

In a statement here, the TDP leader termed it as shameless on the part of the ruling YSRCP to level fake allegations against the previous TDP regime. "The fake leader is using his fake media to publish all fake news. The overall construction of Pulichintala was full of flaws in both civil and mechanical works. The YSR regime was responsible for the present situation. The spillway was reduced to just 546 metre when it should be 754.59 metre," he said.

The TDP legislator said that only 24 crest gates were fixed when there should be 33 gates at Pulichintala to effectively tackle a flood situation. The gap between gates in each pier should not be above 6 millimetre but it was increased to 400 mm. This resulted in far higher pressure that the gates were not able to handle during the flood. A concrete dam should be built there but a 355 metre earthen dam was constructed.

The TDP leader said that the crest gate was now washed away just because the project design was changed, lesser gates were fixed than required and earthen dam was built instead of concrete one. The project designs were changed only to do 'Dhana Yagnam' in the name of 'Jala Yagnam'. Jagan Mohan Reddy looted commissions during his father's rule, which was giving shocking results now, he said.