Government asks irrigation ENC Muralidhar Rao to resign, sacks Kaleshwaram in charge ENC Venkateshwar Rao

HYDERABAD: In a major clean-up operation, Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Thursday directed the Engineer in Chief (ENC) of the Irrigation and Command Area Development (I&CAD) Department C Muralidhar Rao to resign.

The Minister also sacked the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project in charge ENC N Venkateswarlu.

The Government has already ordered a vigilance inquiry into the sagging of piers of Medigadda (Lakshmi) barrage of the KLIP.

A team of Ministers led by Uttam Kumar Reddy visited the barrage site at Medigadda and held a review along with the engineers from the department. The Ministers also tried to observe the extent of damage to Medigadda and visited Annaram and Sundilla barrages.

The Minister held a series of meetings with ENC Muralidhar Rao and KLIP engineers to ascertain the facts and the reasons for the sagging. The Government pursued the issue with L&T company that built the barrage and tried to find out whether the barrage could be salvaged.

With the Assembly session slated to start on Thursday, the Government is said to have initiated action against the top engineers based on the vigilance report on the sagging of the barrage. The Government would also release a white paper on KLIP and all other irrigation projects during the budget session.

With the stern action of the Government on the top brass, there was anticipation among the KLIP engineers of further action in the coming days.

The Government was looking for alternative ways of salvaging the coming cropping season with the help of water from Karnataka.