Government has made Mission Bhagiratha a prestige issue and is willing to hold on to water in Sri Ram Sagar Project for it rather than releasing it for kharif activities and was trying to crush the farmers’ agitation for water with police force, former MLA and State president of Kisan Kheth Congress M. Kodanda Reddy said.
The government was willing to push farmers into a severe crisis now for the sake of future drinking water needs, he said. The crops were withering up after a long dry spell and if water was not released from SRSP the farmers were going to get mired in debt, he said talking to The Hindu , on Saturday.
Police arrested Mr. Kodanda Reddy and Kisan Kheth Congress district president Anwesh Reddy at Dichpally on NH-44 when they were heading to SRSP ayacut villages to see for themselves the crop condition and interact with farmers. They later were brought to fourth town police station here. In the afternoon they were set free and Mr. Kodanda Reddy was taken to Hyderabad with police escort.
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The senior Congress leader said that there were precedents of releasing water for cultivation from the project even when there was just 4 tmcf water. Even if there was 16 plus tmcf in the reservoir Government was intentionally avoiding releasing it due to its love for the mega scheme-Mission Bhagiratha, he said.
Even though there was no provision Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao had taken 15 tmcf water from Singur via Nizam Sagar and Mid Maneru to Siricilla and Siddipet by issuing G.O. No: 885 in last October, he pointed out.
Farmers were waiting for water to save crops as they invested lakhs of rupees to sow them, he said. Further, If the government wanted to hold the water for Mission Bhagiratha they should have told farmers. in advance not to sow crops.
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