Hyderabad: The Telangana govt which had acknowledged crop damage in about 25 lakh acres across the state due to El Nino impact during the all party meeting, has failed to discuss the relief measures during the Thursday’s cabinet meet, former ministre T Harish Rao said.
He questioned the govt’s priorities and said substantial resources were being spent on projects such as the Global Summit, Musi rejuvenation, Future City and major infrastructure initiatives while distressed farmers were being neglected.
Demanding immediate relief, Harish Rao urged the govt to provide a drought assistance package of ₹5,000 per acre, similar to measures announced in neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka. Harish said the govt vacated the project by releasing 20 tmcft of water in the name of repairs, which impacted four districts. He also criticized the non-implementation of the crop insurance scheme despite budgetary allocations and accused the govt of discontinuing the Rythu Bima scheme introduced during the previous BRS govt.
After inspecting drought-hit paddy fields in Chilpichedu and Hatnoora mandals of Narsapur constituency on Friday, he termed the situation as “Revanth Vrushti” not Anavrushti’ (drought) and accused chief minister Revanth Reddy of failing to utilize available irrigation resources. He alleged the ongoing agrarian distress in the state was the result of administrative failure rather than natural causes. Referring to the Singur project, Harish Rao accused the govt of reducing reservoir storage through poor planning, creating both irrigation and drinking water challenges in several districts. He demanded protection of the remaining water reserves and prioritisation of drinking water supply for affected regions.
He said while there was a chance to lift 60 tmcft of water from Devadula, only 18 tmcft of water was lifted and the rest was released to AP, he criticised. He claimed that projects such as Devadula and Kalwakurthy had the capacity to lift significantly higher quantities of water but were operated below capacity, resulting in irrigation shortages across farming regions.