BRS wants judicial probe into SLBC tunnel collapse
The Hindu
BRS demands judicial commission for SLBC tunnel collapse, blames government officials for neglect, incompetence, and lack of experience.
HYDERABAD
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has demanded that the State government institute a judicial commission to inquire into the Alimineti Madhava Reddy Project — Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel collapse incident as three major accidents have taken place in the irrigation sector during the last 14 months.
Speaking to newspersons here on Tuesday, working president of the party K.T. Rama Rao suggested that the judicial commission be headed by a sitting judge of the High Court as there was information that the work on the SLBC tunnel was resumed without taking the opinion of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) experts. He blamed the neglect, incompetence and lack of experience of senior officials of the government for the mishap.
He alleged that Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy was busy campaigning for Congress candidates in the MLC elections, while eight persons were trapped in the tunnel and rescue agencies were finding it difficult even to trace them. He sought to know whether the Chief Minister had no time to supervise the rescue operation or even visit the accident site at least once.
The BRS leader recollected that Peddavagu project in Khammam district was washed away, the retaining wall of the Sunkishala project had collapsed and an under construction pump house of the Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme (PRLIS) was flooded and submerged during the last flood season.
Meanwhile, another senior leader T. Harish Rao said BRS had been observing restraint on the SLBC incident. He sought to set the record straight stating that the tunnel was excavated for a length of 11.48 km during the BRS rule and the expenditure was ₹3,900 crore against ₹3,300 crore spent by the Congress rule during 2005-14.
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