Congress seeks release of Jurala waters for irrigation

Former Minister D K Aruna alleges that despite several representations and protests, the government is not coming to the rescue of farmers

​Hyderabad: The Congress on Friday demanded release of waters for the ayacut under the right and left canals under Jurala project. Former Minister D K Aruna, who recently expressed solidarity with the agitating farmers at the project site, alleged that the authorities were pumping water to Koilsagar project and other reservoirs and were delaying release of water for agriculture, affecting sowing operations during the ongoing kharif season.

Speaking in the Media Hall at the State Legislative Assembly, she said despite agitations by farmers, the government was not coming to their rescue. Each year, farmers were getting water from Indira Priyadarshini Jurala project, but this was the first time they were facing hardships, even though the State received ample rains this monsoon.

She alleged that authorities were pumping water to Koilsagar project and also to Gopaldinne reservoir on the pretext of supplying drinking water to the villages coming under Minister Jupally Krishna Rao’s constituency. “Why is that the Koilsagar was receiving water, but the farmers under the ayacut of Jurala were not being given water?” she asked.

Aruna demanded that the authorities help farmers by releasing water immediately. At a separate press conference, Congress Legislature Party Deputy leader, Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy said the farmers were under deep distress after the government failed on all fronts including loan waiver and spurious seeds. Now the delay in releasing water was adding to their woes.

While referring to Governor ESL Narasimhan’s observation that farmers were at distress because of non-issuance of loans, he demanded that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao constitute a ‘Task Force Committee’ to identify and resolve the problems faced by the farmers in Telangana.