Medigadda/Kaleshwaram (Telangana): The benefits of the K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) government’s mega showpiece Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP) exclude Ambatpalli and other villages lying in the vicinity of the now desolate Medigadda barrage.
Leave returns aside, local residents say, the barrage, a major KLIP component visible from Ambatpalli, on the Godavari, has brought them disadvantages.
Nestled close to the river’s right bank, Ambatpalli, 255 km north-east of Hyderabad, is heavily dependent on borewells for irrigation of crops, mainly paddy and chilies. Some farmers have taken to cultivation of palm.
“Earlier we used to get water within a 100 ft depth. Now, after the water is dammed a bit upstream, we have to dig borewells 150 ft or deeper,” says Lachi Reddy Bandam, a farmer of five-acre land.
Farmers here also complain of increased incidence of flies’ infestation on their crops “as the reservoir serves as a breeding ground”.
Over a month after the Medigadda barrage developed cracks at some spots, six piers sank and the basin of 16 TMC had to be emptied for inspection and restoration — all within four years of the project’s inauguration — Ambatpalli appeared largely nonchalant.
The Rs 1 lakh crore Kaleshwaram project was inaugurated by Chief Minister KCR at Medigadda in June 2019, i.e., in the first year of his present second term. He is now seeking a straight third term.
However, even as the opposition attacks Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) over the design, construction deficiencies, in addition to massive corruption charges on the KCR family, Kaleshwaram as an election issue is apparently showing little impact on the ground across the state as Telangana goes to polls on 30 November.
“Opposition is making noise but people are disconnected with Kaleshwaram as its waters are yet to flow into their fields,” says Puli Raju, a teacher in Siddipet, referring to the unfinished canals and ducts.
“Anyway, voters are focussed on some larger issues in this election like lack of government jobs,” adds Raju, previously a farmer too. His farmland was acquired by the KCR government in 2016 for the KLIP’s 50 TMC Mallannasagar reservoir.
KLIP is intended to provide 169 TMC water for irrigation of crops in 23 out of 33 Telangana districts, 30 TMC for Hyderabad drinking water needs, 16 TMC for industrial uses, etc.
Though Medigadda, Annaram, Sundilla barrages in the border districts and big reservoirs like Mallanna Sagar, Kondapochamma in CM’s home-turf Siddipet district were completed and holding water, distributary network works, to bring all of the planned 18 lakhs acres new ayacut (area served by an irrigation project) under KLIP is in progress, officials say.
“Land acquisition is underway in some places. It might take 4-5 years for the completion of the whole thing,” C Muralidhar, engineer in chief, Telangana irrigation department, told ThePrint.
Where KLIP waters are presently flowing, like the CM’s constituency Gajwel, officials claim, the average groundwater level has increased by over seven metres due to supply of surface water for crops and recharging of underground aquifers.
“How can KCR be blamed for an engineering, construction company’s fault?” questions Venkataswamy Patti, a Scheduled Caste farmer of two acres, in Ambatpalli, when asked about opposition charges of shoddy works on Medigadda damage. His family benefitted from BRS government’s pensions, and Kalyanalakshmi assistance for girl child marriage.
Both Lachi Reddy preferring the Congress and Patti the BRS have not much to comment on the corruption allegations, but the two are disinclined to fault the KCR-BRS for the barrage damage.
In the 2019 panchayat polls, Ambatpalli elected Congress leaning candidates as sarpanch and upa-sarpanch shifting away from the BRS, formerly Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). In 2018, the Congress won the Manthani assembly constituency from the ruling party.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi interacted with women in Ambatpalli on 2 November, when he came to inspect the Medigadda barrage cracks, as part of his Vijaya-bheri yatra campaign in Telangana.
While farmer Sambarati Saraiah, from the backward Munnuru Kapu community, is annoyed with KCR over the paddy price and is pro-Congress, his wife Padma says she will vote for KCR.
Bandam Mamatha, another woman farmer in neighboring Bommapur village, says she prefers the BRS like she did last time. Her reason is Rythu Bandhu, Kalyana Lakshmi schemes.
Farmers ThePrint spoke to in far-off constituencies connected to KLIP also sounded indifferent to corruption or construction blunders, while they put forward their own issues, grievances.
“We are still awaiting a proper compensation for the lands, properties we lost to Mid Manair reservoir in 2006,” says Anjaiah Bandari in Kodumunja village near Vemulawada.
Mid Manair was later included in KLIP and Kaleshwaram Godavari waters are lifted into the reservoir, as part of KLIP objective to stabilize about 18 lakh acre existing ayacut too in Telangana.
The Medigadda damage though has deprived Ambatpalli and other nearby Telangana border villages of the one benefit it provided — a good, direct road access to Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
After the images of the big depression on the barrage road went viral, authorities have shut it since 21 October, with heavy barricading and police, irrigation department personnel standing guard. Though there is no public movement, banners at the spot designate the Medigadda barrage as a Telangana Elections Inter State Check Post point.
Villagers say they now take a long detour to use the bridge at Kaleshwaram, 30 km away and upstream Godavari, for visits otherwise just across the barrage.
Kaleshwaram, the confluence point of Godavari-Pranahita rivers, is also home to a famous Shiva temple revered by devotees from Telangana, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
KLIP, a redesign from former united AP CM Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s conceived Pranahita- Chevella Sujala Sravanthi project, is named after the presiding deity Kaleshwara Mukteshwara Swamy.
Also Read: ‘Pensions to elderly over govt jobs for youth?’ Why young voters of Telangana have a grouse with KCR
Colossal marvel or failure?
A National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA) report, based on site inspection and reviews with Telangana irrigation officials, has indicted the KCR government, faulting KLIP’s planning, design, quality control and operation-maintenance for the sinking of the Medigadda Barrage piers.
In its report, the NDSA, operating under the Jal Shakti Ministry, said that the cracks warrant rehabilitating the whole barrage. It expressed concerns over Annaram, Sundilla barrages, too, part of the KLIP.
“When you build your house with hard earned money, you take all precautions giving ample time for construction to make it last for generations. You don’t rush to create some records,” says A. Srinivas, a Kaleshwaram hotelier serving meals to the visiting devotees, in critical reference to the Medigadda cracks.
Ambatpalli and Kaleshwaram are part of the Manthani constituency, a traditional stronghold of the Congress. The segment was represented in the Andhra Pradesh assembly by P.V. Narasimha Rao from 1957 to 1977, including his CM tenure from 1971 to 1973.
Srinivas exudes confidence that the Congress will retain Manthani, where sitting MLA and Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) manifesto chief Duddilla Sridhar Babu is up against Putta Madhu of BRS.
Three km from Kaleshwaram is the KLIP’s Kannepalli pumphouse. Its massive motors got submerged in the 2022 July floods, causing heavy losses. The Annaram barrage is 15 km away.
Nevertheless, the BRS regime has been showcasing KLIP as “the world’s largest multi-stage lift irrigation project, a mammoth engineering marvel.”
In May, KCR’s son and Telangana minister K.T. Rama Rao, popularly called KTR, tweeted pics of him receiving honour from American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) proclaiming the Kaleshwaram Project as the ‘Enduring Symbol of Engineering Progress and Partnership’.
Had the honour and privilege of presenting two flagship projects of Telangana Govt at the World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2023 held by @ASCE_EWRI in Henderson, Nevada, USA
✳️ Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project
✳️ Mission Bhagiratha
Proud to receive the… pic.twitter.com/s8LTnTriuO
— KTR (@KTRBRS) May 22, 2023
Addressing the World Environmental and Water Resources Congress in the US’s Nevada, KTR emphasised that the project’s “completion in record time stands a testament to CM KCR’s exceptional leadership and his ability to turn ambitious ideas into concrete achievements”.
Opposition corners BRS; Congress promises judicial probe
Exactly five months after KTR’s US event, cracks appeared in the barrage at Medigadda, allowing the Congress and the BJP to go for a frontal assault on KCR and his party.
BJP chief J.P. Nadda had earlier alleged that the project cost was jacked up to Rs 1.2 lakh crore and the waters only reached KCR’s farmhouse in Gajwel.
The Congress manifesto for Telangana promises a judicial probe into the Kaleshwaram construction and other alleged scams during the BRS regime. The opposition alleges that YSR’s Pranahita-Chevella project in 2008-09 was redesigned after the BRS came to power in 2014, “an unnecessary alteration causing huge loss to the exchequer but allowing KCR and Co. syphon off Rs 1 lakh crore.”
After his Medigadda visit, Rahul accused shoddy construction as causing cracks, piers sinking and that KCR and his family are using the Kaleshwaram Project “as their personal ATM to plunder the people of Telangana.”
KTR reacted strongly to Rahul’s comments, saying that “Kaleshwaram is a blessing to Telangana people and the Congress a curse to the people of India”. “Congress is nothing but Scamgress,” the BRS working president said, targeting the party showing strong signs of resurgence in Telangana.
“When the Telangana government spent Rs 80,000 crore on the project, how can Rs 1 lakh crore corruption take place?” KTR asked in the press statement earlier this month.
While the Kaleshwaram investment figure KTR reportedly mentioned in the US event was $ 11 billion dollars (roughly Rs 91,640 crore), irrigation officials peg the cost at Rs 1.05 lakh crore.
The minister explained that the Pranahita-Chevella project plan was Rs 40,000 crore only as there “were no reservoirs, canals, or pump houses components.” He also questioned whether the estimates-expenses would not increase in these 15 years.
(Edited by Tony Rai)