ANANTAPUR: Leaders of Handri Neeva Jala Sadhana Samithi have alleged that successive Governments in the State have been giving a step-motherly treatment to Anantapur district with regard to giving water for irrigation. They have demanded enhancing the capacity of Handri Neeva project from 40 tmcft to 100 tmcft.

Talking to newspersons here on Tuesday after meeting State Government observer on water utilisation in the Krishna basin Harish Kumar, who was on a visit to the district, the samithi leaders -- former MP D. Pullaiah, the former MLA, K. Ramakrishna, and others -- noted that engineering experts had prepared a detailed report two years ago explaining the possibility of giving 100 tmcft of water to Anantapur.

But the successive State Governments were not even bothered to go into the report. A team of experts belonging to the Institution of Engineers (India) had explained in detail how 100 tmcft of water could be given to the perennially drought-prone district.

Poser to Government

They sought to know how the Government was planning to irrigate 6.05 lakh acres ayacut under Handri Neeva with 30 tmcft water, after leaving 5 tmcft losses and another 5 tmcft for drinking water needs in the present capacity of 40 tmcft.

They also sought to know the rationale behind fixing 20,000 acres irrigation per tmcft of water under the project against 10,000 acres fixed for all other projects.

They stated that the State Government had constructed Penna Ahobilam Balancing Reservoir (PABR) in the district 12 years ago at a cost of Rs. 150 cores but it remained unutilised till now due to non-allocation of water.

While the farmers under Nagarajuna Sagar and Krishna delta had been utilising about 200 tmcft of additional water (over allocation) every year for several years, the State Government was not willing to give even 10 tmcft water to the drought-prone Anantapur, they alleged.

They urged the Government and the Tungabhadra Board to take up repair works on the HLC immediately after closure of the canal every year to enable an early drawal of water by Anantapur.

They suggested that the drawal of water should commence in June last week and allowed for 10 months against the present five, as other canals of the Tungabhadra reservoir were being allowed to.

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