Uravakonda YSRC legislator Y. Visvesvar Reddy on Saturday launched a “jala deeksha” in Beluguppa mandal demanding that the government provide water to the ayacut of the Handri Neeva Sujala Sravanti (HNSS) project in Anantapur district.
Under the first phase of the HNSS project, an ayacut of 1.15 lakh acres in Anantapur district and 85,000 acres in Kurnool district is to be brought under canal irrigation through the project.
“When the Telugu Desam Party came to power in 2014, the first phase of the project was 90 per cent complete with just the tributaries remaining to be completed in Anantapur district. The first phase remains incomplete ever since and the ayacut dry,” said Mr. Visvesvar Reddy, who sat on the protest for water along with hundreds of farmers from Uravakonda constituency, which would have been one of the main beneficiaries of the completion of the tributaries.
Mr. Reddy accused Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu of deceiving the people of the Anantapur district by re-directing them to concentrate on the main canal to take water from the project up to Kuppam at the cost of the farmers of the district.
