JOY SHORTLIVED: Cotton crop inundated in floodwaters at Rajapet in Tipparthy mandal in Nalgonda district. — PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

NALGONDA: It is literally a story of sweet turned sour. Farmers, who jumped with joy when the Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy released water into the distributory No.37 of the Alimineti Madhava Reddy project four days ago, are now frowning at the Government.

The reason being that the water that flows thorough the distributory is flooding their crops, thanks to the incomplete works. After reaching Rajupet in Tipparthy mandal, 17 km from the distributory's opening point at Gundlapally in Nalgonda mandal, it started inundating the cotton and paddy fields.

"The joy of getting water after a long time has vanished as water with no let out is flowing into the fields," village sarpanch J. Anjaiah told The Hindu on Saturday. He said that the D-37 waters were damaging about 150 acres of standing crop.

The contractor allegedly failed to lay a bridge across the road resulting in clogging of water on the village outskirts two days ago. As there was no sign of officials and the contractor attending to the problem, the villagers diverted the water route by digging up a small canal. The diverted flow has almost blocked the road that leads to the village.

To expose the hasty release of water into the D-37 canal, the Telugu Desam vice-president Gutta Sukhender Reddy visited the areas where the water submerged crops on Saturday.

"The Chief Minister announced that he was releasing water for 50,000 acres but not even a single acre is being given water through this distributory. The local MLA and the officials misled him and forced him to release water into the D-37," he said. Mr. Reddy further demanded an inquiry into the quality of work and an apology from the local leaders for misleading the Chief Minister.

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