Gandikota holds the secret

​Vijayawada: Even as the state government is preparing ground for release of water from the Gandikota reservoir on January 11, the political discourse in AP began revolving around the Pulivendula Assembly constituency, represented by Leader of Opposition YS Jaganmohan Reddy of the YSRC.

Incidentally, Pulivendula has been blood-stained for the last three decades or so because of unending factional killings with an active political patronage.

In the run up to the ‘landmark’ event, Water Resources Minister Devineni Umamamheswara Rao described the Gandikota reservoir built on the Penna river as a major achievement during the TD government which will ‘rewrite’ the history of Pulivendula and herald wealth into the faction-hit villages of the area.

“The region which is allegedly crime-prone and economically backward under the rule of YSR family for several decades, our government is determined to transform its very face with Gandikota waters”, Uma told the media a couple of days ago.

Incidentally, the YSR family, which includes YS Rajasekhar Reddy, his wife Vijayamma and son Jaganmohan Reddy, continue to hold a sway over Pulivendula since Rajasekhar Reddy became a legislator for the first time in 1978.

It is proposed to draw 3.5tmcft of water by lift from the Gandikota reservoir which impounds the backwaters of the Chitravati river upstream. A pump house was built at Kondapur enabling lift of the waters up to 200ft and pump into the pipelines leading to Pulivendula for a distance of 30 km.

In fact, Gandikota reservoir, expected to irrigate 2 lakh acres in the Pulivendula Assembly constituency, is fed on water supplied from the Krishna river through the Srisailam Right Bank Canal (SRBC) from the Potireddipadu Head Regulator.

It is part of the Srisailam Right Bank Bank Canal (SRBC) and the Galeru- Nagari projects designed by TDP founder NT Rama Rao when he was the chief minister. However, his successors from the Congress -- YS Rajasekhar Reddy and N Kirankumar Reddy -- achieved some progress but it could not become operational due to various reasons.

The SRBC is designed to link a garland of reservoirs built at Owk, Gorakal and Gandikota in Kadapa district. The cost of the phase-1 of the project escalated to Rs 1,800 crore from Rs 950 crore as it failed to take off in time.

Even as the water is to be drawn into the reservoir at Gandikota through a tunnel, the tunnel works failed to witness any progress for several years. The TDP government has planned to supply the waters from the Gandikota reservoir with an ad hoc arrangement through alternative channel.

YSRCP MLA Srikanth Reddy dismissed the TDP’s claim of bringing the Gandikota waters to Pulivendula as a ‘cheap publicity coupled with a false talk’ and asserted that it was only during the Rajasekhar Reddy’s regime, the scheme materialised.

In fact, Pulivendula, which is eager to erase its faction tag, started taking baby steps towards the progress and prosperity much before the Gandikota waters wetting its fertile lands, thanks to the Chitravati river which helps increase groundwater levels in and around the region.

Srikanth Reddy recalled as to how the farmers in the area harnessed drip irrigation with 95 per cent subsidy from the government and raised commercial crops during the YSR government.

The subsidy scheme led to massive borewell irrigation with horticulture crops such as turmeric, sweet lemon and banana. Lingala, Vemula, Vempalli, Thonduru, Simhadripuram and Chakrayapeta mandals, considered as a hotbed for faction feuds, are now tasting prosperity by raising commercial crops.

Pulivendula has witnessed turf war for several decades between two dominant groups, one led by the YSR family and the other by the rival group. It was an intra-party feud till the inception of the TDP in 1983 between the YSR family and Nagi Reddy, father of VS Satish Reddy, currently Deputy Chairman of the AP Legislative Council, within the Congress.

The YSR rivals migrated to the TDP after the latter’s emergence. According to a senior officer with a long stint in Kadapa district, more than 300 people were killed in the faction feuds between the rival groups in Pulivendula region in the last three and a half decades.

“Murders” also took place in a covert manner in the form of electricity shock and road accidents which will never figure in the police records”, the officer told The Hans India on condition of anonymity.