Injustice to Seema decried on irrigation Projects

RSSS plans mammoth meeting at Nandyal on May 21

Atmakuru: The Rayalaseema Saguneeti Sadhana Samiti (RSSS) is contemplating holding a massive Jala Chaitanya Sabha at Nandyal on May 21 mobilising not less than one lakh farmers for the event to highlight the injustice being done to the Rayalaseema region on the irrigation front. The Samiti is spearheading another movement to lodge its protest against siphoning off water to coastal region. The movement would be fashioned on the lines of the movement to achieve construction of Siddeswaram weir on River Krishna at Sangameshwar. The Samiti contends that the rulers of the state are merely allocating rainwater harvesting structures to the Rayalaseema region, while diverting the irrigation projects to coastal Andhra Pradesh continuing the injustice to the region.

Awareness programmes are under way in various mandals of Kurnool district as a prelude to the Jala Chaitanya Sabha. Samiti President Bojja Dasaradha Reddy alleged that no chief minister from the Rayalaseema region did anything for its development. He said that the irrigation schemes for Rayalaseema region like Potireddypadu, SRBC, Telugu Ganga, Galeru-Nagari Sujala Sravanti, Handri-Neeva, Muchchumarri are filled with flood waters and surplus waters but no allotment of water to them.

He was critical of all political outfits and stated that political repression of farmers was the reason for desertification of the Rayalaseema region. He charged Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu with sabotaging the interests of the Rayalaseema region. He also chided him for building the state capital Amaravati with the Rayalaseema irrigation projects’ funds. He exhorted the farmers to launch movements to achieve water allotment to the irrigation projects in the Rayalaseema region.
He sought to know why the Chief Minister, who is harping on the Polavaram project, is mum on pending irrigation projects in the Rayalaseema region.

The Pattiseema and Muchchumarri Lift-Irrigation schemes, described as lifeline to the region, stand as a mute testimony to the betrayal, he said. Observing that only four per cent of the land in the region has irrigation facility, he said the public meeting would highlight the conspiracy hatched by Chandrababu Naidu to divert the Srisailam waters to coastal Andhra region providing irrigation facility to three crops in a year. He appealed to farmers in Chittoor, Kurnool, Kadapa and Anantapur to take part in the public meeting in large numbers to make the event a grand success.

By M Sathya Peter