People of the backward Madnur and Bichkunda mandals in Jukkal Assembly constituency hailed the agreement reached between the Telangana and Maharashtra governments on the utilisation of river water between the two, and expressed hope that this will augur well for the luckless inter-State project, Lendi.
Signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Chief Ministers K. Chandrashekar Rao and Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai on Tuesday for establishing an inter-State Water Board on Godavari has ignited their hopes on the long-pending project considered the lifeline of the area once completed.
With the initiative of the State government four years back, it created hopes for its solution. However, as the people of submerged villages in Maharashtra raised objections and uncertain political situation in the State following the Telangana agitation soon after, such hopes evaporated. The three decade-old Lendi project intended to share water in the ratio of 62:38 between Andhra Pradesh (now Telangana) and Maharashtra also figured in the latest agreement.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao, immediately after the signing of MoU, brought the issue of the Lendi project to the notice of his counterpart and reportedly suggested to the latter to take a decision to pay compensation liberally to the evacuees, to which Mr. Fadnavis responded positively giving hopes to the people in the district.
The then government in the unified State of Andhra Pradesh released all the share of its expenditure at once for the project, which is expected to provide water to 22,000 hectares in parched Madnur and Bichkunda mandals. Canals and other civil works executed with regards to the project were destroyed and huge thorny bushes grew in the canals through time.
The project is located in Mukhed and Deglur taluqs in Nanded district, and as many as 12 villages in the two taluqs would get submerged in the reservoir. The project works came to a grinding halt with the farmers of Mukramabad moving the High Court of Maharashtra for payment of compensation at the present market rate.
As 60 per cent works were already over, if the Maharashtra government implemented the orders given by the High Court, it is said that the project would become operational in next two years.
