BRS to agitate for water release in Siddipet district

BRS leaders in Siddipet district also demanded the government to release water into Sangareddy, Ramayampet, Turkapally, and Jagadevpur canals besides filling all the minor irrigation tanks as an immediate relief to farmers.

Siddipet: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) said it would lay siege to roads in the erstwhile Medak district unless the State government released Godavari water to Kudavelly Vagu and Haldi Vagu, which had 40 check dams on them together, before August 2.

BRS leaders in Siddipet district also demanded the government to release water into Sangareddy, Ramayampet, Turkapally, and Jagadevpur canals besides filling all the minor irrigation tanks as an immediate relief to farmers. Led by former Forest Development Corporation chairman Vanteru Prathap Reddy, a BRS team visited the Ramayampet canal on Tuesday.

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Speaking on the occasion, Prathap Reddy said farmers in erstwhile Medak and Yadadri-Bhongir used to get irrigation water whenever they requested former Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. However, things changed drastically after the Congress came to power. Due to the lack of rain, the groundwater was fast depleting in the district. The minor irrigation tanks and streams across the district had gone dry.

While Ranganayaka Sagar had 0.69TMCft of water against the full storage capacity of 3TMCft, Kondapochamma Sagar and Mallanna Sagar reservoirs had 4.75 TMCft and 8.849 TMCft of water respectively against their full storage capacity. Due to the delay in the release of water to canals, uncertainty was prevailing among paddy farmers in the district, he said, alleging said that Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy was delaying the release of water for scoring politically over the BRS and Chandrashekhar Rao. The Congress was not worried about pushing farmers into crisis for political gain, he said.

Former Minister T Harish Rao, MLAs and other key leaders are expected to participate in the protest programme on August 2.