Even as the rescuers are working round-the-clock to locate the trapped workers at the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel, a political blame game has erupted in Telangana with the ruling Congress and the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) trading charges against each other.
After visiting the accident site in Nagarkurnool district on Sunday, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy blamed his predecessor and former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for the tragedy, alleging that the previous BRS government had caused undue delays in the irrigation project, which eventually led to the mishap.
Speaking at a public meeting in Wanaparthy, Reddy said, “You delayed the execution of the project… Because of this, the tunnel roof collapsed and eight people died. Isn’t this you sin, KCR?”
“Part of the tunnel collapsed due to the previous BRS regime stopping works on the project for the last 10 years, as they were not receiving commissions from the contractor,” the Chief Minister said.
Revanth Reddy also blamed KCR, as the former CM is popularly known, for cooperating with the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh government’s Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme on the Krishna River. “This project has been unfairly diverting Telangana’s share of the river water to the neighbouring state,” he alleged.
The February 22 accident at SLBC tunnel site sparked a fresh debate over the state of irrigation projects, with both BRS and Congress blaming each other for the inefficient handling of the irrigation sector.
The Congress government, which completed one year in office in December 2024, found itself on the back foot, with the opposition parties criticising it for allegedly endangering human lives by undertaking the project without proper planning.
The delay in rescuing the trapped workers due to the complex nature of the incident — which took place 14 kilometres into the under-construction tunnel — further exposed the government to criticism from the opposition.
Both the BRS and BJP also criticised the Chief Minister for not visiting the site, even nine days after the mishap.
On March 1, the BJP Legislature Party leader A Maheshwar Reddy led a team of his party MLAs to the tunnel site and alleged criminal negligence on the part of the Congress government. He accused the government of failing to take any precautionary measures. “The government should explain what tests were conducted to assess the condition at the tunnel, which falls under the shear zone,” he said.
Earlier, BRS leaders, led by former minister T Harish Rao, visited the tunnel site and blamed the government for the accident. He said that the pipe meant to supply oxygen was damaged due to debris, but the government made no effort to supply oxygen through a new pipe to the location.
The Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy dismissed the opposition leaders’ visit as mere political theatrics. The Minister pointed out that in 2020, during the Srisailam Left Bank Power Station blast, which claimed nine lives, no BRS leader had visited the site.
He further noted that when the Devadula Lift Irrigation Project tunnel was flooded, resulting in the deaths of seven workers, their remains were recovered only after five years. He questioned why Harish Rao had remained silent during those incidents.
The Minister also blamed BRS for the SLBC tunnel accident, stating that if the project had been completed during its 10-year rule, the accident would not have occurred. He said if the project had been completed on time, it would have provided 30 tmcft of water to Telangana, benefiting three to four lakh acres of agricultural land in Nalgonda district.
The Congress government vowed to complete the SLBC tunnel project despite obstacles. The project is aimed at irrigating about four lakh acres of land.
The incident has also triggered a heated debate over the comparative handling of the irrigation sector by the BRS and Congress governments.
Uttam Kumar Reddy accused KCR and Harish Rao, who held irrigation portfolio in the past, of crippling the Irrigation sector, alleging that they spent Rs 1.81 lakh crore on projects that did not deliver water as intended.
He alleged that the Kaleshwaram project, on which the BRS spent more than Rs 1 lakh crore, had collapsed, and that the Palamuru-Rangareddy project, which cost Rs 27,500 crore, had not irrigated a single acre.
However, the BRS working president KT Rama Rao held the Chief Minister accountable for the SLBC tunnel tragedy. Alleging that the Congress government was compromising on the quality of work by taking commissions from contractors, he demanded a judicial probe into the mishap.
Also read: SLBC tunnel rescue: No breakthrough yet as CM visits site
The SLBC is a crucial component of the Alimineti Madhava Reddy Project (AMRP), which started in 1983 to provide water to arid regions of Nalgonda and Nagarkurnool districts.
The 44-km tunnel is designed to carry 30 tmcft of Krishna River water from the Srisailam dam through gravity. Experts say that the tunnel construction faces significant challenges due to its location in a geologically fractured zone and groundwater aquifer area.
What delayed the rescue operation in the SLBC tunnel was the lack of an outlet point. Generally, entry and exit points for a tunnel are placed at every 5 km, but due to the presence of the Amrabad Tiger Reserve area, entry and exit points are not allowed in the middle of the 44-km tunnel.
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