Kaleshwaram ‘cleared’? Show the paper
Harish Rao says NDSA and CWPRS back lifting water. The documents we can actually see don’t say that — and the Congress government is hiding behind slogans, not filing the receipts.
The public record leaves the operating question open.
BRS leader T. Harish Rao says an NDSA affidavit allows Kaleshwaram water to be lifted “based on need” and that CWPRS found no structural issues at Annaram and Sundilla. The problem: the records in public view do not back that second claim, and the first needs the actual affidavit, not a paraphrase.
What the NDSA record before the Telangana High Court does say is that Annaram and Sundilla share “similar design and construction methodologies” with Medigadda — making them “prone to similar failure modes”. It also warns that keeping reservoirs full in current condition would worsen the barrages. That is not a clean chit; it is a safety caution. (Court summary; original affidavit not published.)
And CWPRS? Its own research note — commissioned on NDSA’s recommendation — reports “anomalous low velocity” signatures across almost all tested Sundilla bays and says the results inform “whether to store water in the barrage or not”. That is literally the opposite of “no structural or construction issues”. The CWPRS note found by this platform covers Sundilla only; nothing public clears Annaram.
The CAG’s audit gives capacities and design intent; it does not answer the operational question today — under what levels, with what gate configuration, and after which repairs can water be safely lifted or stored.
Two things can be true. One: parts of KLIS may still move water under restrictions. Two: the BJP-led Centre’s own NDSA-triggered testing flagged unresolved risks for storage at Sundilla, and the Congress-run Telangana government has turned that into a blanket “project is dead” line instead of publishing the exact operating window it claims is unsafe. If lifting is dangerous, show the order and the thresholds. If it is possible with gates open, show the clearance.
Harish Rao has put a challenge on the table; now put the paperwork on it. The Congress government in Telangana has not bothered to release the NDSA affidavit, the full CWPRS reports, or a current, itemised operating protocol — just the press-conference version. The BJP is no help either: its agencies did the tests, then left the state to fight the fog. Until the documents land, “cleared” and “dead” are both political words, not technical ones, and the Congress government is leaning on them because evidence would be too specific.