Tadipatri Municipal Chairman J.C. Prabhakar Reddy on Tuesday accused the Irrigation department officials of bungling the release of water from Chagallu reservoir in Anantapur district at a time when there were not enough inflows from Upper Penna Reservoir or the Tungabhadra.
Many structures along the river were reportedly inundated and crops were damaged, alleged Mr. Prabhakar Reddy, adding that two minors were washed away when they had gone fishing in the river Penna.
A residential school, constructed on the riverbed of the Penna in Tadipatri, reportedly got inundated and students could not attend classes. A park developed on the riverbed, and motors, pumps and pipelines of washermen were also washed away, he alleged.
Tungabhadra High-Level Canal Anantapur Irrigation Superintending Engineer N. Rajasekhar told The Hindu that the river was capable of handling 3 lakh cusecs and the maximum outflow from the Chagallu this year was only 23,000 cusecs.
But the Mid Penna Reservoir(MPR) and Penna Ahobhilam Balancing Reservoir (PABR) dams were receiving heavy inflows in view of the rains in Karnataka, and based on the need, the department was regulating the outflow from each dam/reservoir from August 28.
After a few days of lull, the inflows increased on September 2, and on Tuesday, the discharge from Chagallu dam increased from 4,000 cusecs to 6,000 cusecs by lifting three crest gates, the SE added.
The discharge from the MPR dam radial crest gates increased from 6,500 cusecs to 8,100 cusecs by operating 5 crest gates on Tuesday at noon.
