Release of Kaleshwaram and NSP water: BRS claims it is because the government became jittery

He said the government released water to the flood flow canal of the SRSP from Gayatri Pump House and the release of water to the left canal of the Nalgonda district.

Speaking to reporters after submitting a memorandum to the Siddipet District Collector on Tuesday, the former minister said he had sought payment of ₹500 as a bonus over and above the MSP to the farmers at the time of procurement of food grains from them.

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The release of water

The Congress appeared to have been on the edge after KCR visited drought-affected farmers in the Janagaon and Suryapet districts on Sunday as part of his farmers’ outreach programme.

His visit is seen as an attempt to pick up the pieces of the BRS following the mortal blow it had received in the state Assembly polls.

Soon after KCR visited the farmers and consoled them over the withering away of their rabi crops in several parts of the state, the Congress-led government in the state, in an apparent reflex action, put its act together.

It could be a coincidence, but it was too much of it. By Sunday evening, the Gayatri Pump House, part of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), came to life in Sriramulapalle in Ramadugu Mandal in the Karimnagar district.

The surge pool received the water from the pumphouse which flowed into the SRSP Flood Flow canal. The motors kept working for about 12 hours letting 0.1 TMC water flow down to the fields where crops were drying up.

BRS claims credit

The BRS claimed that the motors came to life after KCR had announced his farmers’ outreach programme in Karimnagar on 5 April.

The flood flow canal of the SRSP runs for a distance of 122 km till it ends in Rajarajeswari Reservoir also known as Mid-Manair. Along the flood flow canal, there are 34 vents that fill about 60 tanks. Farmers draw water from these tanks to feed about 8,000 acres of land in both Karimnagar and Nizamabad districts.

The BRS leaders claimed that the Congress government had taken pre-emptive measures to save face, as KCR is now in overdrive and set to kick off similar farmers’ outreach programs in Karimnagar and Sircilla districts on 5 April.

He will visit farms with dried-up crops in Choppadandi and Vemulawada Assembly segments and learn from the farmers the problems they were facing and how they were coping with the present crisis.

Also Read: In interaction with farmers, KCR shows that game is not over yet

Nagarjuna Sagar dam opened

Another development that the Congress might be inclined to dismiss as a coincidence is the opening of the gates of the left canal of the Nagarjuna Sagar dam on Monday, letting a flow of 1,000 cusecs water down to the parched tracts of the farmers till late into the night.

On Sunday, KCR visited the drought-affected Nalgonda district.

The water was released after a review of the availability of water in the Nagarjuna Sagar Project by Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy at Jala Soudha in Hyderabad.

He also reviewed the status in other reservoirs and then ordered the release of water sparingly into the left canal at the rate of 1,000 cusecs for a few days.

This year, due to a lack of enough water in reservoirs, the government had not released water till now despite the fact the farmers were getting agitated over the fate of their rabi crop.

Farmers had even staged agitations demanding the release of water into the floodflow canal.

(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)