AP Responsible For Annamayya Dam Failure: Union Minister In Parliament

Union Minister for Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has made some serious comments in Parliament on AP state government over the failure of Annamayya irrigation dam where one of the gates had failed to open during the deluge resulting in loss of over 33 lives and properties. Speaking in Rajya Sabha, Jal Shakti Mantri asked who should be responsible for this? Doesn’t the state government have the responsibility? He made these comments while introducing the Dam Safety Bill 2019 in the Upper House.

“The safety and security of our dams is a matter of great concern as it is not just about infrastructure but also the question of thousands of lives around and affected by them,” said Jal Shakti Mantri. He raised the issue of the Annamayya dam that was breached. “One and half times more water came into the dam than its Spillway capacity, the gates should have been opened. With great pain, I’m saying this. Out of the five gates, one gate had failed to open that resulted in deluge. The gate was not functional. Who is responsible for it? The impact was huge. Lot of lives were lost.”

Shekhawat commented that the country’s reputation is at stake with such incidents. “Indian officials get badname with such incidents. If engineers in the world want to study the failure of Annamayya dam and talk about the dam’s failures, it is a bad name for the whole Indian in front of the global community,” said Union Jal Shakti minister.

Meanwhile, AP Irrigation Minister Anil Kumar Yadav has responded and commented that the Union Minister’s statement on the Annamayya project is “baseless”. He reasoned that Annamayya project was breached due to a flash flood which the project’s gates could not withstand. He said that all gates were functional but the overflow was so huge that gates couldn’t withstand which resulted in the deluge. Anil Kumar Yadav alleged that BJP MPs Sujana Chowdary and CM Ramesh have “misguided” Union Minister Shekhawat on Annamayya dam.