Onus on contract agency: KTR

Hyderabad: BRS working president KT Rama Rao has said that the contract agency, without naming the L&T Company, will be held responsible for the sinking of piers of Medigadda (Lakshmi) barrage of the Kaleshwaram project recently.

The project has been operational for the last five years and that the barrage withstood the highest flood last year successfully, the minister said and added that the government and the agency were investigating the reasons behind the mishap at the barrage. The agency would take the responsibility of rectifying the anomalies in the construction of the barrage. He has not yet spoken to the officials concerned on the particular issue.

Referring to the National Dam Safety Authority’s visit, KTR said that he was also waiting for the report. He clarified that there will be no burden on the state exchequer due to any damage to the barrage and that the agency concerned would bear the cost and revive it. He took strong exception to the opposition calling the Kaleshwaram irrigation project a ‘white elephant’. It was the Congress, the real white elephant of the country, he said.

In a scathing attack on BJP over its announcement of making a backward class (BC) leader as Chief Minister of Telangana after the upcoming assembly polls, the BRS leader said that the Centre has not agreed to the demand of setting up an OBC welfare ministry. He questioned why the BJP shifted state party president Bandi Sanjay, who belongs to the BC community. The BRS has been raising the demand for establishing a ministry for OBCs since the time Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister. The Telangana Legislative Assembly passed a resolution in this regard and the BRS had demanded this in its plenary, he added.