Festive mood permeated the air as people who made a beeline to the historic Nizamsagar dam cheered the Minister for Agriculture Pocharam Srinivas Reddy who opened 12 out of its 48 gates to let out 60,000 cusecs of water into the Manjeera river on Sunday evening.
With the project receiving heavy inflows after 10 years people in general and farmers in particular are very happy as it created lot of hope in solving water problem for cultivation in the forthcoming rabi. The water from the reservoir was spared for drinking water purpose only in the last three years as it had no surplus to cater to agriculture.
With over 2 lakh cusecs flowing into the Nizamsagar Project from Singur project it is likely to get filled to its full capacity of 17.80 tmcf by a day or two. As of now, the dam contains 12 tmcf. In the current kharif farmers transplanted paddy only in 10 per cent of its 2.75 lakh acre ayacut that too where borewell water was available.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Srinivas Reddy said that except Nagarjunasagar all the 78 major and medium irrigation projects in the State touched full level of water welcoming good days to people. Farmers were in a happy mood as this water would be of great help to the rabi. Agriculture which was in a crisis following the long dry spell would get revived henceforth, he said. Zilla Parishad Chairman D. Raju, MP B.B. Patil, MLC V.G. Goud and MLA Hanmanth Shinde were present on the occasion.
