Singur ayacut farmers wait for water release

Speaking to Telangana Today, farmer Manne Lingaiah of Chowtakur said they were finding it very difficult to save the paddy nurseries.

Sangareddy: Farmers are continuing to wait for the release of water to Singur canals.

The Singur multi-purpose project, built across river Manjeera in Pulkal mandal, has 40,000 acres of ayacut. Several minor irrigation tanks would also be impounded with Singur water. The project had 13.56 TMCft of water against its full storage capacity of 29.91TMCft as on Thursday. However, irrigation officials usually release water for irrigation purposes if the water storage capacity crosses 16 TMCft. Expecting the release of the water, several farmers are under the ayacut and under minor irrigation tanks took up paddy nurseries in the last week of June and first week of July.

---

Lack of rains and due to delay of the water release under ayacut, the nurseries have started withering. Due to a lack of inflows from upstream, the irrigation officials also did not release water to the canals of Ghanput Anicut located in Medak district downstream of Singur. The Ghanpur Anicut had 22,000 acres of ayacut.

Speaking to Telangana Today, farmer Manne Lingaiah of Chowtakur said they were finding it very difficult to save the paddy nurseries. Unless the government releases water, Lingaiah said they could not save the nurseries. Out of 1,769 minor irrigation tanks in Sangareddy district, only four tanks were filled to the brim while more than 1,400 tanks had less than 25 per cent of the water which stands as a perfect example of the prevailing situation.