TDP Prakasam MLAs slam Jagan for not giving water

Mangalagiri: Three TDP MLAs from Prakasam district on Wednesday strongly criticised Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for 'failing' to fulfil his promise to supply Veligonda water to their district farmers by 2021.

The TDP MLAs urged the Chief Minister to bring pressure at the national level in order to include the Veligonda project in the Central gazette. If this was not done, then the Prakasam district farmers would suffer heavily for lack of adequate water in future.

In an open letter to the Chief Minister ahead of his visit to Prakasam district, TDP MLAs Yeluri Sambasiva Rao, Dola Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy and Gottipati Ravi Kumar said that though there was plenty of water in the Nagarjunsagar reservoir, their district was not getting proper supply. All that water was flowing wastefully into the sea. Their district was known for its proneness to drought and lack of water supply. Immediate steps were required to save the farmers.

The TDP MLAs asked whether it was proper on the part of the officials to give unsolicited advice to farmers to grow ID (irrigated dry) crops. They were giving such advice instead of providing water supply. It was the dream of the farmers in the Parchur Assembly constituency to get water from the Guntur channel extension works.

The Prakasam MLAs demanded that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government restart and complete the works on the Sangameswaram project at Paleru in order to ensure better water supply to the farmers. The government should also take up modernisation works on the Rallapadu project. No efforts were being made to ensure remunerative prices to the farmers of subabul and eucalyptus. The Chief Minister has not fulfilled his Padayatra promise to give Rs 5,000 per tonne, they reminded.

Decrying the government's 'indifference', the TDP MLAs said that the tobacco farmers were passing through difficult days due to crop losses and lack of any support from the government. The fate of the paddy, maize, red gram and other crops was no different. The YSRCP regime has driven away the Asian Pulp Paper Mills industry. If it came up, thousands of job opportunities would have been created for the district youth, they said.