Hyderabad: Three Telugu Desam Party (TDP) members of legislative assembly (MLAs) from the Prakasam district on Wednesday strongly criticised the Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy for allegedly failing to fulfil his promise to supply water to farmers in Veligonda by 2021.
In an open letter to Jagan Mohan Reddy ahead of his visit to the Prakasam district on Wednesday, the TDP MLAs urged the Andhra Pradesh chief minister to mount pressure at the national level in order to include the Veligonda project in the Central gazette. “If this was not done, the Prakasam district farmers would suffer heavily for lack of adequate water in the future,” the TDP MLAs said.
Moreover, in the letter, the MLAs Yeluri Sambasiva Rao, Dola Bala Veranjaneya Swamy and Gottipati Ravi Kumar stated that though there was plenty of water in the Nagarjunasagar reservoir, their district was not getting proper supply. ”All that water was flowing wastefully into the sea. Their district was known for its proneness to drought and lack of water supply,” the MLAs remarked in the letter.
They stated that “immediate steps were required to save the farmers.” Furthermore, the TDP leaders asked if it was appropriate on the part of the officials to give unsolicited advice to farmers to grow ID crops.
“They were giving such advice instead of providing water supply. It was the dream of the farmers in the Parchur assembly segment to get water from the Guntur channel extension works. The previous TDP regime allocated Rs. 274 Cr for these works but they were cancelled under the present rule,” they stressed in the letter.