Uttam blames KCR for pump house submergence

State Congress president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy demanded that CM K. Chandrashekar Rao accept responsibility for the submergence of the pump house of the Mahatma Gandhi Kalwakurthy lift irrigation scheme at Yellur in Nagarkurnool district, and apologise to the people.

Demanding a judicial probe while addressing a press conference online on Saturday, he claimed that the submergence had led to the pumps exploding. Ten of the 14 floors of the pump house were under water, he alleged. The pump house was inundated within 20 minutes and the incident, resulting in loss of property worth thousands of crores, was the outcome of an avoidable mistake.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that an expert committee, constituted by the TRS government, had submitted a report in June 2016 making several recommendations for the safety of the pump house. The government ignored the recommendations and carried out underground works of the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy lift irrigation scheme within 400 metres of the Kalwakurthy pump house.

He alleged that sub-stan

dard and inferior quality works were done on the Kaleshwaram, Mid-Maniar and Konda Pochammasagar projects.

TPCC working president Ponnam Prabhakar demanded the intervention of the Centre to probe the quality of work in the irrigation projects constructed during the TRS regime. The TPCC chief condemned the arrest of Congress leaders who tried to visit the pump house. Earlier, Congress leaders including A. Revanth Reddy, MP, D. Mallu Ravi, former MP, and AICC secretary S.A.

Sampath Kumar were arrested by Kalwakurthy police while are on their way to the pump house. They were intercepted at Telkapally by the police and asked to get down from their vehicles. When they refused, the police dragged them out during which Revanth Reddy suffered bruises on his leg. Talking to the media, Revanth Reddy alleged that the government was trying to cover up the incident. The police shifted the leaders to the Uppununthala station and released them in the evening.