The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Anantapur News : Anantapur ryots facing crisis, says TDP leader

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 25, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Anantapur

Anantapur ryots facing crisis, says TDP leader

By Our Staff Reporter

ANANTAPUR, NOV. 24. The TDP whip and Uravakonda legislator, P. Keshav, has expressed concern over the poor flows into the Tungabhadra High Level Canal (HLC) and Guntakal Branch Canal (GBC).

As a result, the irrigated and irrigated dry crops under the canals, most of which are in the seed formation stage, are facing acute shortage of water.

He warned that crops like paddy, sorghum, chilli, cotton and others would face withering within 10 days, as they are already on the brink of wilting due to insufficient or no water.

He said that against the indent of 2,100 cusecs given by Andhra Pradesh for the HLC, the realisation at the State's border with Karnataka was only about 1,100 cusecs for the last six days.

Talking to newspersons here today, he said the farmers were distressed, as they were not getting sufficient water when the requirement was higher.

However, neither legislators, MPs, nor Ministers, were responding to the situation to bail out the farmers by ensuring sufficient water in the canals.

`Ministers unresponsive'

Stating that it was a crucial issue for farmers under the ayacut, the TDP legislator said two Ministers from the district -- J.C. Diwakar Reddy and N. Raghuveera Reddy -- had restricted their visits to their constituencies and were not even reacting to the issue.

Lack of Government interest on the issue was evident from the fact that it had failed to appoint a superintending engineer on the Tunghabhadra Board for the last five months. Other engineers of the Irrigation Department were scared of inspecting the canal to detect tapping of water by Karnataka farmers, he stated.

Tense situation

Mr Keshav alleged that overutilisation of 20 to 25 per cent water by Karnataka farmers had gone up to 50 per cent now and it might take 60 to 70 days to realise Andhra Pradesh's quota of about 6 tmcft at the border at the current rate of flow in the canal.

The situation in GBC was even worse as only 263 cusecs water was being given against the prorata allocation of 370 cusecs.

He mentioned that there was a `war-like' situation between four villages in Vidapanakal mandal over sharing the little available water.

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Anantapur ryots facing crisis, says TDP leader