Ongole: Plea to complete 106 pending irrigation projects in State

Ongole: The speakers at a roundtable meeting organised by the Jana Chaitanya Vedika on the status of Kandula Obulreddy Gundlakamma and Pula Subbaiah Veligonda projects here on Saturday demanded that the government should not neglect the 106 irrigation projects under construction in the State. They demanded the State government to immediately complete the Veligonda and Gundlakamma projects, which are a lifeline to the Prakasam district and develop the region.

The president of Jana Chaitanya Vedika, Vallamreddy Lakshmana Reddy, presided over the roundtable meeting and said that though there are about 16.50 lakh acres of cultivable land in the Prakasam district, only 10.50 lakh acres of land was receiving water for cultivation. He explained that about 4.30 lakh acres of land is being cultivated by water from Nagarjuna Sagar Jawahar Canal, 0.77 lakh acres by Krishna west delta, 0.73 lakh acres by Ramateertham reservoir, and another 0.46 lakh acres through the medium irrigation projects like Rallapadu, Mopadu, Cumbum, Veeraraghavuni anicut, Bitragunta anicut, etc.

He said that it is a curse to the Prakasam district that the government failed to complete the Veligonda project, which could provide water to 3.36 lakh acres of land. He said that the Gundlakamma project is capable of providing water to 0.80 lakh acres, but the failure of the government to repair the gates has thrashed the hopes of the farmers. He said that no contractor is coming forward for the reinstallation of the third gate even after calling for tenders six times, and lamented that the government is not releasing Rs 10 crore that is required for the repair of the 15 gates of the project. He said that priority should be accorded to completing the pending 106 irrigation projects that could improve the living standards of lakhs of farmers and crores of farm workers.

The chief guest and irrigation projects expert Akkineni Bhavani Prasad said that Prakasam district is continuing to be a backward district as there is no strong political leadership in the district. He observed that it is a tragedy for the district not to have any reservoirs or tanks to store an average of 540 tmcft of water being received as rain every year. He opined that the district can get water only by linking the Godavari, Krishna, and Penna rivers. He demanded the government to start phase-2 of the Nagarjuna Sagar right canal to transport the water from the Polavaram project reservoir to the Somasila project reservoir.

Former ZP chairperson Edara Haribabu said that the public should increase their partnership in the development of society. CPI leader Vadde Hanumareddy said that though water has been flowing into the sea for 13 months, the government is not showing any concern about repairing the gate of the Gundlakamma project and storing water up to the full capacity of 3.80 tmcft. State vice-president of the Congress party Sripati Prakasam regretted that the district was unable to utilise the water resources due to the negligence of the State government. Prakasam district TDP leaders Kamepalli Srinivasa Rao, T Aruna, Consumers Forums federation president Maguluri Nageswara Rao, Jana Vignana Vedika president Chittem Venkateswarlu, Suparipalana Vedika secretary Nagabhushanam, Pourasamajam convener Narsingarao and others participated in

the meeting.