Guntur: Alleging that water scarcity was damaging their crops, farmers of Nalgonda district tried to stop water supply to Andhra Pradesh from the Pulichintala project site on Saturday.
Farmers of Mellacheruvu, Chintalapalem, Mathampalli and other villagers of Nalgonda district tried to barge into the project to stop the supply.
The police, led by Sattenapalli DSP Madhusudhana Rao, forcefully stopped the farmers.
Mellachervu ZPTC E. Pratap Reddy and Chintalapalem sarpanch G. Ankaiah alleged that 13 villages were deprived of irrigation water due to water being released to AP. They demanded an immediate stop to the water release and maintaining of 4 tmc ft water to save their crops.
Pulichintala project superintending engineer M. Venkata Ramana said 4,265 cusecs of water was released from the project on Saturday and 1.52 tmc ft of water was available in the dam. He said they were releasing the water to AP, as per orders of the government.
The farmers submitted a memorandum of their demand to Pulichintala project officials.
Mr Ramana assured the farmers about informing the government of their demands, following which they called off their protest.
