Pattiseema: Farmers in Rayalaseema seek their pound of flesh

Vijayawada: The Pattiseema lift scheme, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu's brainchild, has triggered a fresh water war between Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions. Just two days after Naidu's statement that the scheme would be commissioned on a full scale drawing 80 tmc ft of the Godavari water at the rate of 10,000 cusecs per day, the Rayalaseema Sagunneeti Saadhana Samithi demanded that release of river water from the Srisailam project to the Krishna delta be stopped immediately since Pattiseema is being launched.
As per the Bachawat Tribunal, the lower riparian Krishna delta with an ayacut of 13.06 lakh acres in Krishna, Guntur and parts of West Godavari and Prakasam districts will forego its share of over 80 tmc ft of assured water in the Krishna river the moment the same volume of water is received from the Godavari either through the Polavaram dam or lift scheme. Accordingly, the linkage of the Krishna-Godavari rivers will help Rayalaseema receive 35 tmc ft, Karnataka 21 tmc ft and Maharastra 14 tmc ft from the share of the Krishna delta.
"We will not allow the government to release even a single drop of water from the Srisailam project after July 6," asserted Bojja Dasaradharami Reddy, convener of the saadhana samithi. A delegation from the outfit is seeking an appointment with the CM to press their demand. If it is not met, the samithi will mobilise farmers from Rayalaseema to the Srisailam dam to prevent water release, he told TOI.
The samithi has proposed to stage a massive demonstration at the venue of the Kurnool district Irrigation Advisory Board (IAB) meeting scheduled in the last week of July, and register their strong protest against the alleged inaction of the elected representatives. Similarly, a mass contact programme is also planned involving the farmers under the ayacuts of the Handree-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi, Galeru-Nagari and KC Canal in Rayalaseema to take forward the movement to undo what he called regional injustice in water utilisation.
The samithi led a large gathering of farmers from Kurnool, Kadapa and Chittoor to stage a protest demonstration in May last at Siddheswaram hillocks near Nandikodkur in Kurnool district demanding construction of a weir at the particular point to impound 50 tmc ft of water and to thereby facilitate drawl of the river water into Telugu Ganga, Handree-Neeva and KC canal through the Potireddypadu head regulator.
Raghava Sarma, a media activist from Tirupati, said that the Potireddipadu regulator lost its underlying objective because of the alleged lobbying by coastal Andhra leaders to 'overutilise' the Krishna water through Srisailam project. As per the river water agreement, the minimum dead drawl level (MDDL) has to be maintained at 854 ft so as to help Potireddipadu regulator receive 6,000 cusecs to feed Telugu Ganga, Handree Neeva and KC canal.
But the TDP government during the earlier stint of Naidu as CM in the mid 1990s released a GO Ms No 69 facilitating to reduce the MDDL by 20 ft which helped coastal Andhra people exploit the water and consequently left Rayalaseema projects bone dry, Sarma rued.
However, Krishna Delta Parirakshana Samithi leader Akkineni Bhavani Prasad dismissed the contention of Rayalaseema people as baseless.