Release water from Nagarjunasagar to fill tanks

Guntur: Discussions were held on acute drinking water scarcity in Palnadu region of Guntur district at the Zilla Parishad general body meeting held here on Wednesday. MLA Pennelli Ramakrishna Reddy complained that though Palnadu region is facing drinking water scarcity, the rural water supply department is not bothering about it. He said there are no irrigation tanks in Macherla Assembly constituency and groundwater level, too, is depleted before onset of summer.

The RWS department has failed to supply drinking water to the villages where there is an acute drinking water problem. He complained that Jerrivagu drinking water scheme was completed at a cost of Rs10 crore two-and-half-a- years ago, but still water is not being released. He stressed the need to solve drinking water problem.MLC Dokka Manikya Vara Prasad said that there is a need to conduct special meeting with the RWS officials to discuss drinking water problem.

Minister for Civil Supplies Prathipati Pulla Rao directed the officials to deduct scheme maintenance from the deposit of the contractor.Minister for Civil Supplies Prathipati Pulla Rao directed the district administration to take steps to solve drinking water problem.

He said he had already discussed with Minister for Water Resources Devineni Uma Maeheswara Rao in this regard. He felt that there is a need to release at least 7.5 tmc feet water from the Nagarjunasagar project to fill drinking water tanks in the district.