Nellore: 2 engineers suspended for negligence

Nellore: Officials started an inquiry on the unauthorised release of water to the tune of 10,000 cusecs from Somasila reservoir to the delta areas. District Collector MV Seshagiri Babu ordered a probe on the incident when Kovur MLA Prasanna Kumar raised doubts about the involvement of some senior-level engineering officials who illegally released water. Further, Chief Engineer of the Telugu Ganga Project Srinivasulu Reddy is conducting an inquiry on the release of water.

In fact, a huge volume of water was released from the reservoir at midnight on Monday which damaged temporary diversion roads in many areas.

National Highway works are going on at Uppalapadu in Anantasagaram Mandal and the diversion road was washed away due to the huge flow of water.

Sudden release of water carried away some workers who were taking rest to some distance and they were rescued by local people.

The water was released from the 11th crust gate against the scheduled release of 3,250 cusecs for Rabi crop. Local farmers are questioning how around 10,000 cusecs of water was released without prior notice.

Meanwhile, Kovur legislator N Prasanna Kumar Reddy levelled allegations against some divisional level engineers who resorted to corruption for releasing water from the reservoir without getting permission from the district administration. Minister Anil Kumar in also asked the Collector to order for an inquiry. Telugu Ganga Chief Engineer Srinivasulu Reddy has been assigned to conduct an inquiry on the incident. He inspected the reservoir on Thursday and interacted with the project staff and also with the farmers.

Chief Engineer Srinivasulu Reddy who conducted inquiry on Thursday submitted his report and consequently Divisional Engineer D Subrahmanyam and Junior Engineer Krishnaiah of Somasila Reservoir were suspended for neglecting their duties.