Telangana: Farmers stage protest over water scarcity in Irrigation minister’s constituency

Farmers here have been in a dilemma after the State government declared a crop holiday for the Yasangi season to the areas in the ayacut under the left canal of NSP, citing shortage of water in the project

Suryapet: In what could be quite embarrassing for Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, farmers staged a protest in the agriculture fields where the paddy crop was withering due to shortage of irrigation facilities.

The protest was staged by farmers at Kalmalapally of Garidepally mandal in Huzurnagar Assembly constituency. Farmers here have been in a dilemma after the State government declared a crop holiday for the Yasangi season to the areas in the ayacut under the left canal of the Nagarjuna Sagar Project, citing shortage of water in the project.

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However, some farmers, depending on borewells, had taken up cultivation of paddy at Kalmalapally, but with the bore-wells too drying up fast, the paddy crop has started withering in thousands of acres in the mandal. The situation forced the farmers to stage a protest in their fields at Kalmalapally to highlight the issue on Tuesday. They raised slogans demanding immediate release of water to the left canal of Nagarjuna Sagar Project to save the crops in Miryalaguda, Nagarjuna Sagar, Huzurnagar and Kodad assembly segments.

They also said that if the State government continued to ignore the issue, there would be farmer suicides, and asked the Irrigation minister to take the initiative and persuade Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy for release of water to the NSP left canal.