Start a Movement for Water Along with BRS, KCR Tells Karimnagar Farmers
KARIMNAGAR: After the Lok Sabha elections, around 10,000 farmers will go to the Medigadda barrage of Kaleshwaram project and divert Godavari water to the fields, said former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. He said the Congress government did not have any intention to supply water to protect withering crops nor save farmers, and urged them to be prepared to fight.
The former chief minister was speaking after inspecting dried crops in Mugdumpuram, Boinapally and Mid Manair Dam at Shabashpally in Sircilla of erstwhile Karimnagar district on Friday and interacting with farmers as part of the Polata Bata programme.
Many farmers told Rao that they had invested `40, 000 on each acre and had purchased seeds and fertilisers but their hopes of a good crop were dashed by the non-availability of water in the last phase. The standing crops were withering away, they said.
Before the Assembly elections, the Congress had promised to supply irrigation water but since coming to power the government was only creating problems for farmers, they claimed.
Last year, at the same time, water overflowed from the check dams and there was one-feet deep in the fields but today cracks had appeared on the dried fields, the farmers told Rao. They urged him to exert pressure on the state government so that it would sanction `25,000 per acre to partly bail them out of their problems.
Rao consoled the farmers and asked them not to lose heart. He said that he did not expect that he would see such a drought situation in Telangana state and assured them that the BRS would be with them in their hard times.
MLAs Gangula Kamalakar, Padi Koushik Reddy and Palla Rajeshwar Reddy, BRS Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat candidate Boinapally Vinod Kumar, former MLAs V. Satish Kumar, Sunke Ravi Shankar and Rasamai Balakishan and Balka Suman were present along with others.