A day after the hydraulic-operated gate of K L Rao multi-purpose irrigation project, better known as Pulichintala project, was washed away in the early hours of Thursday following a massive discharge into the dam, blame game has begun between the ruling YSR Congress party and the opposition Telugu Desam Party.
The incident took place at 3 am when the engineers were trying to lift the gate to a height of 4 feet. The hydraulic-operated gate no. 16 was washed away due to massive surge of water.
The ruling YSRC leaders are blaming it on the contractor – Bollineni Seenaiah, brother of Bollineni Krishnaiah, a former Telugu Desam Party MLA, the chairman of the Seenaiah Constructions Private Limited, which bagged the contract for Rs 268.89 crore in 2003 during the regime of then chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Even the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government is learnt to be pinning the blame on Seenaiah Constructions, stating that the contractor had not followed standards in the construction of the project.
The officials reportedly brought to the notice of the government that during his term between 2014 and 2019, Naidu had made additional payments to the extent of Rs 283 crore to Pulichintala contractor towards escalation charges stating that the contractor had done 31 additional works.
Though the escalation cost was originally approved by the Kiran Kumar Reddy government in 2013, a committee constituted by then Governor E S L Narasimhan, led by senior official Ajeya Kallam strongly opposed the payment.
However, after Naidu came to power, he approved the additional payment to Seenaiah and Company, though the finance department opposed the same stating that the Governor-appointed committee rejected the payments.
“The Naidu government did not even bother to check the quality of works done by Seenaiah and Company, but blatantly favoured it because the company belongs to the TDP MLA,” an official said.
The TDP leaders are rejecting these allegations. Though Seenaiah and Company was awarded the contract in 2003, the foundation stone for the project was laid by Naidu’s successor Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy and the project was more or less completed during YSR’s regime.
“It was inaugurated during the Kiran Kumar Reddy government. If there are any lapses in the construction of the project, they took place only during the YSR regime. Why should the TDP government be blamed for the present mishap?” TDP leader Kalva Srinivasulu asked.
