Khammam: Paddy farmers in dire straits due to lack of irrigation

Farmers are alleging that the negligent attitude of irrigation officials and lack of monitoring of works by Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who represents Palair constituency and deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka caused delay in completing repairs.

Khammam: Paddy farmers in the Nagarjuna Sagar Project ayacut in Khammam district are in dire straits as the fields are drying up due to lack of irrigation water supply for the last fortnight.

Paddy fields in a large area have already been damaged due to the recent heavy rains and the fields where the crop is in good condition are developing cracks. This happened due to delay in carrying out repairs to Nagarjuna Sagar Project left canal, which suffered a massive breach due rains and floods on August 31 and September 1 as well as to the old Palair canal under Palair reservoir.

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Farmers are alleging that the negligent attitude of irrigation officials and lack of monitoring of works by Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who represents Palair constituency and deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka caused delay in completing repairs.

Telangana Rythu Sangham leaders M Ramesh and B Rambabu stated that paddy being grown in nearly two lakh acres under the ayacut was facing the threat of getting damaged due to lack of water supply. If water is not released in time it could lead to bigger loss than the floods caused. They also wanted the Ministers to ensure that water from Sitarama project which Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy inaugurated on August 15 be released into the NSP left canal to feed paddy fields in Madhira and Sathupalli constituencies.

The sangham activists staged a dharna at Kallur on Thursday and planned to stage a dharna on Friday in front of irrigation office at NSP quarters area in Khammam demanding to complete repairs to damaged canals immediately to release water to paddy fields.

A farmer Govinda Rao said that day time temperatures increased during the past week and it is showing adverse effects on paddy fields. Farmers have already lost thousands of rupees due to floods and steps should be taken to protect rest of the crops.

It seems that there has been a lack of coordination among the Ministers in the district over the issue. A statement from Nageswara Rao on Thursday said he had asked Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy and irrigation secretary Rahul Bojja to complete the repair work immediately. The statement also said that the Minister expressed anger at irrigation officials for the delay in repair works and directed them officials to complete the repair work within two days to release water to farmers in NSP ayacut.

Contrary to Nageswara Rao’s statement, Srinivas Reddy’s camp office in-charge T Dayakar Reddy issued a statement on the same day saying the Minister ensured completion of repair works within two weeks. Farmers are happy and thanked the Minister for releasing water to crops, he said.