Rayalaseema stares at severe famine: Somireddy

Kadapa: Telugu Desam leader Somireddy Chandra Mohan criticised Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for writing letters to the Centre. This will not help Rayalaseema, which is now in a dangerous position. He wanted to know when more than 8,000 cusecs of water was flowing into the sea every day, why was he afraid to blame K Chandrasekhar Rao.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday along with politburo member Reddeppagari Srinivasa Reddy (Vasu), he said it was time to go to Delhi and settle the issue, otherwise Nellore and Prakasam districts would face severe famine. He recalled that N. Chandrababu Naidu had opposed the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy and Dindi projects in Telangana during the apex council meeting held in 2016. He said that Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy persuaded Jawaharlal Nehru during his tenure as Chief Minister to bring in the Srisailam project to rejuvenate the drought-stricken Rayalaseema.

He questioned why Jaganmohan Reddy was not opening his mouth even though all the important projects in Kadapa district were drying up today and the K. Chandrashekar Rao government was acting in a way that would cause damage to Rayalaseema.

He said that when the water level was above 834 feet, GO No. 69, issued in 1996, made it clear that it would generate electricity in the right bank power house. He said that it was clear that in the event of an emergency, power would be generated at the left bank power house by placing a tail pond and reverse pumping into the dam.

Meanwhile, in view of constant inflows from upstream parts of Western Ghats, the Tungabhadra Reservoir received constant inflows and TB dam reported 35.786 TMC ft capacity on Saturday. As against 1633 ft capacity, the dam reported storage level of 1610.28 ft.

Dam authorities hoped the TB reservoir would get full storage capacity of water around August 15. A senior official from TB dam hoped to release water into the river by lifting all gates as part of I-Day celebrations, which is a tradition here.