SRSP: Farmers seeks water release

Tension prevailed at Sri Ram Sagar Project on Thursday when farmers staged a protest demanding the release of one TMC water from Lakshmi and Kakatiya canals to protect their crops in Nizamabad and Jagitiyal districts.Thousands of farmers from Kammarpally, Morthad, Mendora, Yergatla and Balkonda mandal in Nizamabad district, and Metpally, Ibrahimpatnam and other mandals of Jagitiyal districts staged a protest in front of the SRSP SE officer situated at Sriram Sagar Project in Mendora mandal. SRSP officials, however, said they were helpless since there was no water in the project.

It was a planned protest with two members from every household in 24 villages from the two districts taking part in the protest, with the final numbers swelling to thousands. Police had thrown a tight security ring and Nizamabad Police Commissioner Karthikeya personally supervised the security arrangements. About 700 police personnel were deployed to prevent any untoward incident. Police diverted Adilabad-Nirmal-Hyderabad traffic on NH-44 to Adilabad-Nirmal-Bhainsa-Basar-Nizamabad.

G Gangareddy, farmer, Bodepalli, said due to the lack of rains their crops were withering. If SRSP officials release water through Lakshmi and Kaktiya canals, their crops would survive. Farmers unions demanded that the State government take a decision within two days, if not they would strengthen their protest.