Justice Ghose flies into a rage as retd ENC (Irri) ducks key queries
Justice Ghose gets enraged at retd ENC (Irrigation) Muralidhar over alleged memory loss claims
Hyderabad: Telangana state retired Engineer in Chief (Irrigation) Muralidhar, who led a team of irrigation officials for the construction of Kaleshwaram project during the BRS rule, answered carelessly to the questions posed by Justice Ghose Commission. The engineer said he was suffering from memory loss and hence he could not remember anything regarding the project works. Justice Ghose, who got furious, advised him to study books to revive his memory.
The Commission also grilled other retired irrigation officials who held KCR responsible for the designs and works taken up in the projects.
When Justice Ghose questioned about the selection of locations of Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla for the construction of barrage, a retired engineer Nalla Venkateswarlu replied that the construction sites of the barrages were changed to reduce the length of the gravity canal, increase capacity, reduce forest land acquisition, lift irrigation and reduce the power load. When the Commission asked him as to whose instructions the water was stored in the barrage, he said that the water was stored only as per the instructions of the then CM KCR.
Similarly, when the Commission asked whether the agencies were ever penalised for late completion of work, retired ENC Venkateshwarlu replied that they should never have done such work. He also clarified that he used to visit the barrages frequently during construction.
Ghosh had expressed anger when Muralidhar gave weird replies to his questions. Muralidhar replied that he was not aware of anything about barrages and he could not remember anything.
The retired irrigation officials said that he retired in February 2024. With this, Commission Chairman PC Ghosh expressed his anger at Muralidhar Rao and said that he still remembers the judgments he gave.
“Did you just forget?” Justice PC Ghosh asked. To this, Muralidhar Rao replied that he had lost his memory. The Commission advised Muralidhar that reading books would improve his memory.
