THE All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), in a statement issued on August 16, has noteds with concern the gross dereliction of duty leading to the 19th gate chain link of the Tungabhadra Dam breaking and inundating of nearby regions. Absence of regular monitoring and continuous inspection of the crest gates led to the accident. AIKS demands stringent action against the negligent officials and accountability of the union government. Under the Dam Safety Act of 2021 the union government is primarily responsible to provide for surveillance, inspection, operation, maintenance, for prevention of dam failure related disasters and to provide for institutional mechanism to ensure their safe functioning. The union government took under its control the regulation of dams and a National Dam Safety Authority was also set up.

The gates were installed at the inception of the dam in 1949-50 and their expiry date is 50 years. The Tungabhadra Board under the centre failed to replace it in a timely manner. This led to a situation where the gate number 19 of the Tungabhadra Dam in Hosapete, Bellary district broke, leading to an uncontrolled release of water. The chain link securing the gate snapped with a flood of about one lakh cusecs of water flowing out from the damaged gate. The BJP led government that is busy blaming the Kerala LDF government for the unprecedented landslides in Wayanad and falsely claiming that its warnings were ignored, is surprisingly mum on this development for which it is directly accountable. The chain links in this case were old and Karnataka had suggested that they be replaced with steel cables to operate the crest gates. In 2019 there was an incident where the gate broke near the upper level canal on the left bank of the same dam leading to a huge amount of water flooding nearby areas. Clearly, the BJP led government at the centre has failed in its duty and is responsible for the present crisis.

According to reports, repairs can be carried out only after two-thirds of the dam is emptied. Hence, all 33 gates of the dam have been opened to manage the water flow and drain out water. This is also required to stop the dam from collapse. Approximately 65 TMC (thousand million cubic feet) of water needs to be released before any repair work on gate number 19 can commence. Naturally, this leads to great insecurity for the farmers as draining of the reservoir will adversely impact irrigation and lower downstream there are genuine apprehensions of flooding of fields due to increased outflow from the dam. An acute crisis is likely as there was a severe drought last year leading to crop losses. The future of farmers in about 30 lakh acres of irrigated areas in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana could be adversely affected; the losses could well be over Rs 30,000 crores according to farmers.

Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh already have high instances of farm suicides. The distress can only become more severe due to the present flooding. AIKS demands that adequate compensation be made for crop loss and waive loans of farmers who suffered due to the failure of the governments. Repairs must be done on a war-footing and in a fool-proof manner. Responsibility should be fixed and action must be taken against the officials of the Tungabhadra Board.