Nellore: Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy slams lax attitude of irrigation officials

Nellore: Former Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy criticised the lax attitude of the irrigation officials, who failed to check properly the working condition of crest gates at Somasila Reservoir while releasing water on Wednesday.

In a press note released to media on Thursday, Somireddy said the officials were taking up repairs just before discharging of water and expressed fears over unforeseen disaster in case the huge water body fills to the brim.

He came down heavily on the officials for not taking any precautionary measures before releasing water from crest gates. Stating that inflows were around 80,000 cusecs, he said the officials had simply started repairing the jammed crest gates attributing the problem to the transformer.

Somireddy also condemned the police for booking cases against paddy farmers, who were staging protests demanding MSP for produce. He said even though farmers were spending Rs 30,000 per acre, they are getting only Rs 7,500 per putti. He said the procurement price has decreased from Rs 11,000 to Rs 7,500 and the volume of putti increased from 850 kg to 1,050/1,150 kg. He said farmers were incurring a loss of Rs 20,000 per acre and demanded a compensation of at least Rs 15,000 per acre.