Charging the government with failing to handle the Almatti issue efficiently, the Telugu Desam Party local unit has given a call to the farmers and its cadres to take part in a ‘Chalo Assembly' protest programme on Monday.
TDP district president and Mylavaram MLA Devineni Umamaheswara Rao said at a press conference on Saturday that the protest was aimed at bringing together farmers to exert pressure on the government to shake off its “indifference” and properly address the Almatti dam issue to prevent the neighbouring State from drawing more “illegal benefits.”
Posters released
Addressing a press conference here, where he released posters related to the programme, Mr. Umamaheswara Rao said that it was a miserable failure on the part of the government not to be able to prevent Karnataka from raising the height of Almatti dam over and above the permitted 519.6 metres.
Karnataka had already increased the height “illegally” to 520.2 metres and it was planning to further enhance the height to 524.256 metres, he alleged.
Stating that the State's farmers would stand to lose a lot on this count, Mr. Umamaheswara Rao maintained that it was because of the government's failure before the Brijesh Kumar Tribunal that the situation turned advantageous to the neighbouring State.
The TDP had organised protest programmes at Prakasam Barrage and at other places over this and it would not rest until the government woke up to the importance of safeguarding the farmers' rights.
Mr. Umamaheswara Rao lamented that much damage had been done to farmers because of the government's failure to effectively present its arguments before the tribunal to impress upon it to call for a survey of the Almatti dam height to find out whether the height was increased above 519.6 metres originally permitted by the Supreme Court.
