Hyderabad: The Telangana government, after much hype over how it will not rest till the guilty are punished in the cases related to the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), appears to have developed cold feet once it came face to face with the reality of taking action.
Though the Vigilance Commission, which approved a report from Vigilance & Enforcement wing which investigated the reasons for Medigadda barrage’s failure, and told the government to take strict action on at least 40 former and current senior irrigation engineers including those with ranks of engineer-in-chiefs — as reported in these columns on May 1 in its report ‘Panels blame BRS govt era staff for KLIS failure — so far no action had been forthcoming from the government.
The Vigilance Commission recommended that criminal cases be filed, in addition to departmental proceedings being launched against all those found guilty by the V&E wing.
The V&E report and the Vigilance Commission’s recommendations, along with the National Dam Safety Authority report on the Kaleshwaram barrages, are expected to come up at Thursday’s meeting of the state Cabinet.
It is reliably learnt that the vigour with which the investigations, either by government agencies or commissions — as in the case of the still ongoing Justice P.C. Ghose commission of inquiry into all three Kaleshwaram project barrages — were launched, and the findings that are emerging from these investigations are becoming ‘too much to handle’ for the government.
If view of the ongoing pattern of action, or inaction, it is expected that the government might arrive at reasons to hold off on taking action on the vigilance report citing the ongoing Justice Ghose probe and raising questions whether taking action now would be the right thing to do, given the view that a judicial commission holds primacy over an investigation report by a government agency. Another reason that is expected to be found to take shelter under for inaction is learnt to be the previous admission by the government that if action is taken, then it could pretty much empty out the irrigation department, particularly in light of two more ongoing V&E investigations on Kondapochammasagar, and on Mid-Manair project.
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