Koilsagar ayacut farmers resort to road blockade

Mahbubnagar: The farmers of Koilsagar ayacut in Mahbubnagar district blocked the road leading to district collectorate demanding the authorities to immediately come to their rescue and save their crops by releasing irrigation water from Koilsagar dam.

During their protest, the farmers alleged that though the State government was making tall claims of providing irrigation water to 8 lakh acres under the existing projects, the ground reality is totally different to the government’s claims.

“In fact, the Koilsagar dam was constructed to irrigate about 12,000 acres of agriculture land under the project ayacut. However, soon after the TRS government came to power, it had increased the ayacut to 50,000 acres and speeded up the lift irrigation works and even released water by filling the Koilsagar by lifting water from Jurala project.

But the pathetic situation is that though the project is having adequate water, the authorities are not releasing water to the farm lands. So we have decided to protest against the attitude of authorities and demand the government to immediately solve our problems,” said the protesting farmers.

At present the farmers have sown crops in over 4,000 acres in Rabi, which is far less than what they had sown last Kharif. Majority farmers have sown paddy, which requires large amounts of water. Though as of now they had irrigated with borewell water, they feel that borewells would dry up soon due to oncoming summer season. They demanded the Koilsagar water be released to help them save their crops.

Further, the farmers of Koilsagar ayacut had earlier approached the District Collector and requested him to release the water from the dam at least in three phases to save their crops from being dried up.

However, even though it is more than 2-3 months, the authorities concerned have not responded and because of which, the farmers have decided to take to roads. “If the government fails to release water from Koilsagar, crops in about 4,000 acres would be dried up and the farmers would lose investments made worth Rs 50 crore,” said another agitating farmer.

According to farmers, the main purpose of Koilsagar dam is to provide irrigation water and at present the dam is having adequate water to suffice both irrigation and drinking purposes.

But the officials are arguing that if they release water now for irrigation, they would have to face tough time in summer for drinking needs, as the demand for drinking water will go up manifold.