Khammam: Lack of coordination among officials comes to fore in IAB meeting

There is enough water in Nagarjuna Sagar and water would be supplied as per requirement and farmers need not worry, said Puvvada

Khammam: Alleged lack of coordination among officials in releasing water to Yasangi crops in the district came to fore at the district Irrigation Advisory Board (IAB) meeting here on Wednesday.

Legislators and elected members complained that though abundant water was available in NSP, farmers were facing difficulties in feeding water to the crops due to lack of coordination among officials.

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Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar, who attended the meeting, also said farmers were expressing concerns that the required amount of water was not being released for Yasangi crops. There should be better coordination between irrigation, agriculture and electricity departments, he said, asking irrigation officials to take strict measures to ensure that the water was supplied to tail end farmers in the district. He asked the Irrigation Chief Engineer to take up field visits to the last ayacut lands to identify problems in water supply and resolve them.

So far 19 TMC of water has been released into Palair Reservoir from Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP). In the last Yasangi season, the area covered was 1.72 lakh acres, now it has increased to 2.25 lakh acres. A proper plan of action has to be implemented to feed crops in the current Yasangi, Ajay Kumar said, adding that there was enough water in Nagarjuna Sagar and water would be supplied as per requirement and farmers need not worry.

MLC Tata Madhusudan, ZP chairman L Kamal Raj and Sathupalli MLA Sandra Venkata Veeraiah wanted officials to work in better coordination so that the farmers would not face problems in irrigating their crops.