Hyderabad: On a day when Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao was on a tour of Karimnagar and Rajanna-Sricilla districts to visit crops dried up due to lack of irrigation, the selfie video of a young farmer from Nalgonda region went viral on social media, where he showed Nagarjunsagar left bank canal brimming with water passing close to his field, but water not being given to the farmers from his region.
“Water is being released into the canal, but not for irrigating the lands in Nalgonda. The water is going to Khammam located some 100 km away. This is happening despite Uttam Kumar Reddy, the irrigation minister hailing from this district. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and the ministers are letting the water be taken away just to return the favour to minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, for ensuring the maximum number of seats for Congress in the assembly elections,” said P Satish, a young farmer from Yellapuram village of Nereducherla mandal in Suryapet district.
Informing the people that although he was cultivating crops on 15 acres this Rabi season, he said he wasn’t able to irrigate even half an acre of land.
“There is no water in the minor irrigation tanks, which is causing depletion of groundwater. There is no water in the tanks from where buffaloes could drink, and MROs and irrigation officials are staying put near the canal gates and are preventing the farmers from this area from drawing water from the canal,” he said.
It is known that given the drinking water needs of the areas downstream of Nagarjunsagar, 2,500 cusecs of water is being released through the project’s left bank canal to Palair reservoir where the water level has reached dead storage, and also to fill the reservoirs en route.
Addressing the media during his tour of Karimnagar and Rajanna-Sircilla districts on Friday, BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao claimed that only after he toured Suryapet district on March 31, water being released into Sagar left bank canal, and that there was 14 Tmcft water available above the dead storage limit in Nagarjunsagar project, from where the water is presently being released.
