Challenging Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s claim that the government provided irrigation to 7.50 lakh acres in Kurnool district by giving rain guns, former Union Minister of State for Railways Kotla Jayasuryaprakash Reddy said the Congress would launch an agitation focussing on farmers’ woes.
Nearly 10 tmcft of water was necessary to irrigate 7.50 lakh acres and drawal required uninterrupted power supply, but farmers were being given seven hour power supply in two spells, he told the media in Kurnool. The government did not provide irrigation even to 10,000 acres in Kurnool district this year, he remarked. The Chief Minister’s claim was a ploy to deprive farmers of input subsidy, Mr. Jayasuryaprakash Reddy alleged.
Opposition leader in Parliament Mallikarjuna Kharge will address a public meeting shortly at Kodumur and it would mark the commencement of a concerted agitation for the farmers’ cause, Mr. Reddy said. The Congress would stand by the displaced Gani, Sakunala and Kondajutoor villages, who were on warpath for a reasonable compensation.
While he was a Union Minister, he had proposed laying of a 250-km long pipeline from Tungabhadra dam to Tungabhadra Low-Level Canal at a cost of Rs. 11,500 crore to prevent diversion, pilferage and seepage of water, but it was yet to materialise, he said.
