Medigadda Barrage collapse: 17 officials to face criminal charges and 33 disciplinary action

The State Vigilance Commission has advised the government to initiate criminal proceedings against some 50 serving and retired officials, as well as the contracting agency L&T Precision Engineering Systems (L&T-PES) blaming them for the collapse of the Medigadda barrage of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project.

The suggestions were based on the Vigilance Report dated March 5, 2025, submitted by the DG, Vigilance & Enforcement (V&E), Hyderabad, highlighting lapses in design, supervision, quality control, and execution of the Medigadda barrage works. The sinking of Block No. 7 of the barrage resulted in massive financial losses to the State exchequer and also political slugfest.

The Commission directed the Irrigation and Command Area Development (I&CAD) department to initiate major disciplinary proceedings against 33 officials, including engineers and Finance department officials, for procedural and supervisory lapses.

They include Bhupathi Raju Nagendra Rao, Todupunoori Srinivas, V. Phanibhushan Sharma, Mohd. Ajmal Khan, Kotte Sudhakar Reddy, Sudagoni Sathyanarayana, B. Venkata Ramana Reddy, Sardar Omkar Singh, Ch. Thirupathi Rao, Banothu Nanda, Ajmeera Suresh Kumar, P. Shravan Kumar, K. S. S. Chandra Sekhar, H. Baswaraj, Thoutam Hemalatha, Ankilla Ravikanth, R. Vijay, G. Gangadhar, G. Saicharan, M. Prasad, Merugu Raju, B. Ganesh, Md. Ismail Sajid, P. A. Venkata Krishna, K. Devender Reddy, M. Raghu Ram, B. Kiran Kumar, A. Krishna Mohan, G. Krishna Reddy, E. Sukumar, P. Shravan Kumar, L. Bheema Raju, Vali Shaik and Boge Srinivas.

Penalty proceedings should be initiated against seven retired senior officials under the Telangana Civil Services (Conduct and Appeal) Rules, the Commission said. They include Cheeti Muralidhar, Engineer-in-Chief (General) (I&CAD), N. Venkateshwarlu, Engineer-in-Chief, Kaleshwaram Project, Gajjela Hari Hara Chary, Deputy Chief Engineer, Kaleshwaram Project, B. Venkateshwarlu, Chief Engineer, Quality Control & Inspection, I&CAD, Chatla Gangadhar, V. Ajaya Kumar and A. Narender Reddy.

Criminal proceedings were suggested against 17 officers and the Agency L&T-PES, whose action led to the sinking of the Medigadda barrage, as well as causing huge financial loss to the Government exchequer. The 17 are among the 33 already picked up for disciplinary and penalty proceedings.

The contractor, L&T-PES, has also come under scrutiny for violating key terms of the supplemental agreement and for faulty execution of secant pile foundations, which directly led to the sinking of the barrage structure.

The Commission said that the L&T-PES agency will be liable to bear the full cost of replacing Block No. 7. The agency was also accused of claiming project completion despite glaring deficiencies, and failure to meet safety and structural norms.

The Commission also called for accountability of higher officials, including Principal Secretaries of the I&CAD and Finance departments, who approved deviations and financial proposals during the period of redesign and execution from April 2015 to October 2023.

Suggesting reforms for such dealings in the future, the Commission issued directives to the I&CAD, Finance department, and GAD. They include scrupulous adherence to norms and contract conditions, mandatory joint inspections, revision approvals for design changes, comprehensive model studies by third-party experts, record-keeping on contractor equipment deployment to counter false claims and enforcement of work insurance provisions aligned with updated estimates.

Published - June 02, 2025 09:31 pm IST