₹600 cr. goes into Gundlakamma, but water yet to reach Ongole farms

Officials blame the delay on court cases over compensation to oustees

Long wait: A panoramic view of the Obul Reddy Gundlakamma Project at Mallavaram in Prakasam district.

Over ₹600 crore has been pumped into the Obul Reddy Gundlakamma project with a view to bringing under irrigation 1.42 lakh acres in drought-prone Prakasam district. Yet, the farmers in Ongole, S.N.Padu and Addanki Assembly constitutencies are unable to fully reap the benefits of the project envisaged to store 3.86 tmcft of water in view of non-completion of the canal network and field channels thanks to cost and time overruns. Undue delay in rehabilitation of the oustee farmers in the tail-end Duddukuru village has hampered the implementation of the project.

Prakasam District Development Forum president Ch. Ranga Rao points out that 90% of the project work had been completed during the erstwhile Congress regime as then Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy took it up on a fast track mode in 2006.

Cost escalation

In spite of this, the farmers who have been traditionally growing chilli, cotton, Bengal gram and tobacco have not seen water flowing from the reservoir into their fields through the field channels even as the project cost has gone up to ₹753.83 crore, he says. The project was designed to provide assured irrigation to 62,000 acres during khariff and 80,000 acres during rabi and also get water replenishment from the Nagarjunasagar reservoir project as the farmers are faced with water scarcity almost every alternate year.

Meanwhile, irrigation officials attribute the delay in laying tail-end major canal to displaced farmers in Inkollu mandal moving the High Court for a better compensation package after the enactment of the Land Acquisition Act in 2013. “The work on the right canal has been completed so also more than half of the left canal,” explains Irrigation Deputy Engineer Prasunna. “We are making all-out efforts to convince the farmers in the tail end of the left canal to part with their land accepting the compensation provided by the government in the larger interests of fellow farmers,” explains Irrigation Superintending Engineer R. Reddiah. The State government has hiked the project cost to avoid losses to the contractor concerned, Congres ryots’ wing president V. Rajagopal Reddy says, adding but the alacrity has not been exhibited in reaching an out of court settlement with oustee farmers by offering an improved financial package to them.