BRS blames Congress govt. for dried up paddy in large tracts in Palamuru

Large tracts of dried up paddy fields due to lack of water for irrigation in Pedda Mandadi mandal of Wanaparthy district.

Former Minister and Deputy Floor Leader of BRSLP T. Harish Rao along with a team of party leaders from combined Mahabubnagar district examined large tracts of dried up paddy fields due to lack of water for irrigation at Veltur and Alwala villages of Pedda Mandadi mandal in Wanaparthy district on Monday.

During their interaction, the affected farmers broke down as they showed the BRS leaders the dried up paddy and explained that it had failed at the grain-filling stage due to lack of water for irrigation. Mr. Harish Rao consoled them and suggested them not to lose heart.

Former Ministers S. Niranjan Reddy, V. Srinivas Goud and C. Laxma Reddy, MLC Naveen Kumar Reddy, former MLAs Aala Venkateshwar Reddy, S. Rajender Reddy, B. Harshavardhan Reddy, C. Rammohan Reddy, M. Janardhan Reddy and Y. Anjaiah Yadav, party leaders R.S. Praveen Kumar and B. Hanumanthu Naidu, Errolla Srinivas and others accompanied Mr. Harish Rao during the field visit.

Later, speaking at a public meeting at Wanaparthy he said under the K. Chandrashekhar Rao administration, the same fields they found dried up paddy grew two full crops a year for eight years under the Kalwakurthy lift.

At Alwala, a farmer Kondaiah who raised paddy on three acres did everything to get a good crop and when it reached the grain-forming stage it dried up in front of his eyes for want of water. It was the same for another 250 acres of paddy raised in the village and around 25 lakh acres across the State.

BRS leader T. Harish Rao speaking to farmers who suffered crop loss in Wanaparthy district on Monday.

“Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy says drought conditions have descended on the State due to poor inflows into major reservoirs. But, the fact is despite poor monsoon Srisailam received 221 tmc ft water and Jurala got 252 tmc ft this year. The water was there, but the Congress government failed to utilise it in time by filling irrigation tanks and other reservoirs”, Mr. Harish Rao said.

He explained that the government had failed to switch motors of the Kalwakurthy Nettempadu, Bhima and Koilsagar lift schemes in time. As a result, despite Kalwakurthy having the capacity to lift 50 tmc ft for five months from June, the actual water lifted was only 18 tmc ft. The remaining schemes could lift up to 70 tmc ft water, but less than 30 tmc ft was lifted. At the same time, Andhra Pradesh had drawn over 75 tmc ft through Pothireddypadu Head Regulator itself.

He demanded that the government lift more available water from Srisailam through Kalwakurthy to save the standing crop and to meet drinking needs by storing it in reservoirs, release water from Jurala for another 15 days to save the standing crop and announce crop loss compensation for 25 lakh acres.