Leaders of opposition parties and farmer unions on Wednesday called for a united struggle cutting across party lines to protect the riparian rights of Andhra Pradesh at a time when the Centre issued a gazette notification for redistribution of the Krishna waters with a view to allegedly gain political mileage in poll-bound Telangana.
Chairing a roundtable conference to unite the farmers cutting across party lines for a protracted struggle to assert the rightful share of Andhra Pradesh of 512 tmc ft decided by the Brijesh Kumar tribunal and that of Telangana of 299 tmc ft, Communist Party of India(CPI) State Secretariat memmber G. Eshwaraiah said drought would be a recurrent feature if the present allocation of the Krishna waters was altered to the detriment of the lower riparian State.
Not a single acre of land could be cultivated this year under the Nagarjunasagar Right Bank Canal ayacut in the State, including Prakasam district, which was in the tail-end due to construction of new projects in the upper riparian States of Telangana and Karnataka, said TDP farmers’ wing leader K.Srinivasa Rao.
It was unfortunate that the Centre had issued the gazette notification when Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was in New Delhi, said CPI(ML) New Democracy State vice-president Ch. Venkateswarlu.
Upper Bhadra project
Inflows into the reservoirs across the State had dwindled in the wake of the BJP-led Government at the Centre granting national project status to the controversial Upper Bhadra project in Karnataka and earmarking ₹5,300 crore for the project in the Union Budget at the time of the Assembly elections in that State, Samyukta Kisan Morcha Prakasam district convenor Ch. Ranga Rao said.
Farmers in the drought-prone district suffered due to prolonged delay in completion of the Veligonda project designed based on floodwaters obtained in the Krishna river, said Jana Chaitanya Vedika president V. Lakshman Reddy.
Gudlakamma ayacut farmers could not take up cultivation of crops in arid Prakasam district during rabi in view of the non-completion of repairs to the crest gates of the reservoir at a cost of ₹10 crore even after a year, lamented Andhra Pradesh Congress vice-president Sripathy Prakasam.
