First in 10 years, crop holiday declared for NSP ayacut for Yasangi

The ayacut farmers should take a crop holiday into consideration and irrigation facility would not be provided for cultivation.

Nalgonda: For the first time after formation of the State, a crop holiday has been declared for the left canal of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP) for the Yasangi (Rabi) season due to nonavailability of the water in the project.

Project Chief Engineer Ajay Kumar, in a message, alerted farmers, saying that it was not possible to provide irrigation facility to the ayacut of the left canal of Nagarjuna Sagar Project. The ayacut farmers should take a crop holiday into consideration and irrigation facility would not be provided for cultivation. The available water in the project would be utilized for drinking water purposes, the message said.

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The announcement from the project officials has triggered unrest among the ayacut farmers of Nagarjuna Sagar Project.

The water level in the major irrigation project has dipped to 522.3 feet as against the full storage level of 590 feet. The current water storage was 312.05 tmc as against the gross storage capacity of 153 tmc of water. There are 12 lakh acres of ayacut under the NSP left canal in Nalgonda, Suryapet and Khammam districts in Telangana. With the decision, the ayacut farmers would be forced to take up cultivation under bore-wells in the area.

According to irrigation sources, there was a possibility to draw only 30 tmc of water for drinking water purposes. Considering this, officials have prepared a plan to draw water from the project for drinking water up to July 2024.