The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Breach to a distributory dashes ryots’ hopes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Breach to a distributory dashes ryots’ hopes

S. Ramu

- PHOTO: R. Biksham Ruther

Huge loss: Women showing cotton destroyed due to the breach to D-49 of the AMRP at Korlapahad of Kethpally mandal in Nalgonda district.

KORLAPAHAD (NALGONDA DT): The distributory no.49 under the Alimineti Madhava Reddy Project (AMRP) in Nalgonda district developed a breach dashing the hopes of ryots of Inupamula in Kethepally mandal.

“We borrowed Rs.60,000 to raise cotton in a five acre patch. The flash flood destroyed the entire crop. It’s really a death blow for us,” Nallamada Saidamma told The Hindu on Tuesday.

Many villagers are surprised to know about the breach and they are pondering over the reason for the sudden flow of water through the D-49. They alleged that bad maintenance of the Musi reservoir shutters were the reason for the sudden increase in the inflows.

“It’s because of bad maintenance. As the rusty shutter failed to work, the water coming from the Panagal reservoir reached the D-49 with a heavy speed,” Jala Narasimha Reddy, who lost his red-gram and tomato crops, said.

According to a rough estimate, 40 acres of cotton, 20 acres of red gram and five to ten acres of tomato was damaged. Water pressure was so heavy that a 50-ft long breach had developed to the embankment to the surprise of the ryots. The officials plugged the breach with sand bags but water is still flowing out of the distributory sending shock waves among the farmers.

“The officials don’t take the business seriously. Had they plugged the first breach properly, the second breach would have been avoided,” Bhadramma, another villager, said. Akarapu Bhiksham, a village elder, too echoed the same feelings. No AMRP engineer could be reached for his/her side of the story.

The TRS leader of the nearby Bandapalem village Vanguri Ramu asked the officials increase the width of the D-49 pipeline that crosses the national highway no.9. “The officials should construct a highway bridge to facilitate free water flow,” he demanded.

Another distributory (no.40) between Indlooru and Basireddigudem in Tipparthy mandal too developed a breach, according to the ryots.

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