Hyderabad: After a 15-month probe into the sinking of some piers of Medigadda barrage and damages to Annaram and Sundilla barrages, which are part of the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme (KLIS), the Justice PC Ghose one-man commission submitted its report to Telangana govt on Thursday. Justice (Retd) Ghose handed over the nearly 650-page report, which runs into three volumes, to principal secretary, irrigation, Rahul Bojja at the secretariat on the last date of the commission’s extended term.To echo in future polls“I have submitted the report to the state govt. Now, the govt will study the report and act on that,” Justice Ghose, a former Supreme Court judge, told the media. As promised in the run up to the 2023 assembly polls, the Congress govt ordered a judicial inquiry into the Kaleshwaram project and issued a gazette notification to this effect on March 14, 2024. Justice (Retd) Ghose began his probe in May, 2024.The findings of the commission might echo in the political discourse of the state and all future polls, including the upcoming rural and urban local bodies elections.Kaleshwaram project, touted as the lifeline of Telangana by the previous BRS govt, had created a political storm in the state just before the 2023 assembly polls.Parties blame BRS for flawsThe ruling Congress has been blaming the previous K Chandrasekhar Rao-govt for the Kaleshwaram damages. Some retired engineers and irrigation experts say, no other irrigation project has become such a “major controversy” in the country. Irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy had earlier described Kaleshwaram lapses as the “biggest man-made disaster in independent India”, and also said there were many lapses right from design flaws, structural and maintenance issues, no quality control apart from financial mismanagement. Congress alleged that even after spending over 1 lakh crore, the KCR govt could not create even a lakh acre new ayacut. BJP also blamed BRS for the Kaleshwaram lapses.Political game to intensifyCongress, BRS and BJP might use the findings of the commission to their advantage during the campaign in future polls, even in the forthcoming rural and urban local bodies elections. The ruling Congress and BRS are eagerly waiting for the report as ex-CM K Chandrasekhar Rao and former irrigation minister T Harish Rao were summoned by the Ghose commission . Many of the irrigation engineers said the location of Medigadda barrages and all major decisions pertaining to Kaleshwaram projectwere taken by KCR himself .
