Much to the delight of ayacutdars of the Nagarjunasagar Project (NSP) left canal system in the district, water was released from the Palair balancing reservoir in Kusumanchi mandal into the irrigation canals on Wednesday.
Perhaps for the first time in recent years, water from the Palair reservoir was released well in time for the kharif season. Thanks to the steady inflow of water from the Nagarjunasagar dam in Nalgonda district, the water level in the Palair reservoir reached 22 feet as against the full reservoir level of 23 feet on Tuesday night.
Minister releases water
Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar formally released Krishna water from the Palair reservoir by switching on the button at the head regulator near Palair on Wednesday morning. He performed puja before releasing the water into the main irrigation canal.
Palair MLA K. Upender Reddy, Sattupalli MLA S. Venkata Veeraiah and Wyra MLA L. Ramulu Naik besides a host of Agriculture department officials and the NSP engineers were present.
The NSP officials have prepared an action plan to release about 24 tmc of water into the NSP left canal system in seven wetting periods in on-and-off mode continuously till September 3 and for another nine days from September 10, thereafter.
The timely release of water for irrigation is expected to scale up kharif operations in the ayacut of the NSP left canal system spread over more than 2.50 lakh acres in as many as 16 mandals across the district.
Paddy transplantation was slightly delayed in the current crop season in several parts of the district due to labour shortage triggered by the coronavirus crisis.
The cultivation target for paddy in the present kharif season in the entire district has been set at little over 2.30 lakh acres. Sources in the Agriculture department said the paddy cultivation may exceed the stipulated target due to the favourable conditions in this crop season.
