The Hindu : Nizamabad, Medak ryots seek Singoor water

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 09, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Nizamabad, Medak ryots seek Singoor water

By Our Staff Reporter

BODHAN (NIZAMABAD DT.), MARCH 8. The continued neglect of Nizamsagar ayacut and the step motherly treatment meted to ryots of Nizamabad and Medak districts by denying them water from the Singoor irrigation project was highlighted by speakers at a public hearing organised to discuss problems confronting the major irrigation project and its affect on the farming community.

A three-member panel led by the retired Justice V. Bhaskar Rao, the former Accountant-General, Nandiwada Bhima Rao, and the retired Chief Engineer of Central Water Commission, R. Vidyasagar Rao, attended the hearing organised jointly by the Nizamabad Sugarcane Growers Association and the Telangana Natural Resources Management Group, at the sugarcane growers meeting hall here on Monday.

Ryot leaders, sugarcane growers, elected representatives and people from a cross section of society attended the hearing. The Sugarcane Growers Association chief, Karne Hanmanth Rao, the Nizamsagar Aycutdar Protection Committee convener, M. Appi Reddy, and the Natural Resources Management Group member, M. Sambasiva Rao, were present. The speakers said that until and unless the Singoor project was treated as a balancing reservoir, problems of ryots of the two districts would continue. The former Bodhan MLA, P. Sudarshan Reddy, lamented how the successive rulers neglected the major irrigation project. He said the silt level had reached an alarming stage. The irrigation officials, who should have provided water to irrigate 2.75-lakh acres, failed to cover even 1-lakh acres. He said this led to the Government preparing an action plan to take up the Alisagar and Guthpa lift irrigation schemes in the district to supplement the Nizamsagar ayacut. He said the Government should make it mandatory to release water from Singoor to irrigate the parched lands in the two districts.

The former municipal chairman and Director of Nizam Deccan Sugars Limited, Madhukar Rao, said ryots of Nizamabad were taken for a ride on the promise that Singoor would be made a balancing reservoir. He said the decision to divert Singoor water to meet the drinking water needs of Hyderabad and Secunderabad was causing untold misery to the farmers.

Mr. Appi Reddy alleged that the rulers had `misled' people of the two districts by not taking up the Devanur balancing reservoir in Narayankhed area of Medak district. The ryot leaders -- Anksapur Ashok Reddy, Ajay Wodeyar, Saya Reddy - the CPI(M) leader, Anne Narayana Rao, the former municipal chief, A. Hanimi Reddy, were firm that unless Singoor was declared a balancing reservoir for Nizamsagar, things would not improve. They said as Krishna waters are being brought to the twin cities, time has come to divert Singoor waters to the Nizamsagar project.

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