Kanuri Lakshmana Rao: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}

| birth_place = [[Kankipadu]] near [[Vijayawada]], [[British India]]<br />(now in [[Andhra Pradesh]], [[India]])

| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1986|05|18|1902|07|15}}<ref name="Lok_Sabha">{{cite journal |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=17 July 1986 |title=Lok Sabha Debates (Sixth Session, Eighth Lok Sabha)|url=https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/3685/1/lsd_08_06_17-07-1986.pdf |journal=Lok Sabha Debates |volume=18|issue=1 |pages=4–5 |doi= |access-date=16 June 2022}}</ref>

| death_place = [[Hyderabad]], [[Andhra Pradesh]]<br>(now in [[Telangana]])

| term = 19 July 1963<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ravi Baghel|title=River Control in India: Spatial, Governmental and Subjective Dimensions|date=14 February 2014|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-319-04432-3|page=126|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LVC-BAAAQBAJ&q=kanuri+lakshmana+rao&pg=PA126|access-date=19 July 2015}}</ref> – 9 November 1973<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://eparlib.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/759802/1/Council_of_Ministers_English.pdf|title=Council of Ministers}}</ref>

| primeminister = [[Jawaharlal Nehru]]<br />[[Lal Bahadur Shastri]]<br />[[Indira Gandhi]]

| term2 = 1962–1977

'''Kanuru Lakshmana Rao''' (15 July 1902&nbsp;– 18 May 1986) was an Indian Civil  [[engineer]] and a [[Padma Bhushan]] awardee<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web|url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |title=Padma Awards |publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India |date=2015 |access-date=21 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015193758/http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf |archive-date=15 October 2015 }}</ref> who served as the Union Minister of Irrigation & Power and Member of Parliament for Vijayawada from 1962 to 1977.

Rao was born in a Telugu [[Niyogi]] [[brahmin]] family in [[Kankipadu]], [[Krishna district]], [[Andhra Pradesh]]. His father was a village attorney. He lost his father when he was nine years old. He lost vision in one eye due to injury during childhood days while playing at school. He studied Intermediate (+2) at [[Presidency College, Chennai|Presidency College]], Madras. He took his [[B.E.]] degree in Civil Engineering from [[College of Engineering, Guindy]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thebetterindia.com/153870/college-engineering-guindy-chennai-news/|title=India's Oldest Engineering College Turns 225: 6 Alumni Who Have Made Guindy Proud!|publisher=The Better India|author=Vidya Raja|date=31 July 2018}}</ref> and he was the first student from [[College of Engineering, Guindy]] to obtain a master's degree in engineering. Later he took his [[PhD]] in 1939 from the [[University of Birmingham]] in the [[United Kingdom]].

In 1963, Rao was awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contribution in the spheres of irrigation and power.{{citation needed|date=May 2013}} He had been president of the [[Central Board of Irrigation and Power]]{{citation needed|date=May 2013}} and of the [[All India Engineers Association]] in 1958–59 and 1959–1960.<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100116030537/http://www.ieindia.org/archives/pastpres.htm |archive-date=16 January 2010 |url=http://www.ieindia.org/archives/pastpres.htm |title=Past Presidents of Institute of Engineers}}</ref> He was vice-president of International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (Asia) in 1957–61 and in 1961–65.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tvosibgtv.ru/arhiv/prezidenty-issmge.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=22 June 2016 |archive-date=28 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170328132205/http://tvosibgtv.ru/arhiv/prezidenty-issmge.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was awarded a doctorate in science by [[Andhra University]] in 1960. He was also awarded a [[doctorate]] by [[Roorkee University]] in engineering in 1968.

He worked as a professor in [[Rangoon]], [[Burma]]. After completing his PhD he worked as assistant professor in the United Kingdom. He wrote a book called ''Structural Engineering and Reinforced Concrete''. After returning to India, he worked as a design engineer for the Madras government. He held the post of director (designs) in Vidyut Commission-[[New Delhi]] in 1950. He was promoted as chief engineer in 1954.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ieitirupati.org.in/downloads/KLRao.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=18 November 2013 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045412/http://www.ieitirupati.org.in/downloads/KLRao.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

He wrote autobiography titled ''The Cusecs Candidate''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ieitirupati.org.in/downloads/KLRao.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=18 November 2013 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045412/http://www.ieitirupati.org.in/downloads/KLRao.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

He was elected as a member of parliament from [[Vijayawada (Lok Sabha constituency)|Vijayawada constituency]] for the first time in 1961. He was elected as member of parliament three times from the Vijayawada constituency. On 20 July 1963, Rao was sworn in as a minister for Irrigation and Electricity in the union government. Under his regime as union minister for water resources, Rao designed many irrigation and hydro-electric projects. [[Nagarjuna Sagar Dam]], the world's longest [[masonry dam]] on River Krishna in [[Guntur district]] of [[Andhra Pradesh]] and Nalgonda District of [[Telangana]] is to his credit. Rao worked as union minister in Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Sastry and [[Indira Gandhi]]'s cabinet.{{citation needed|date=August 2013}}

*{{usurped|[https://web.archive.org/web/20031121204734/http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/04/16/stories/2003041600820500.htm `River linking project is pragmatic']}} at [[The Hindu]] Wednesday, 16 Apr 2003