BRS leaders visit farmers distressed over withering crops

Hyderabad MLA accuses Congress Government of neglecting farmers amidst severe water crisis, leading to crop withering and financial losses.

The Congress Government is a mute spectator to the woes of the farming community, which is struggling to irrigate standing crops due to an acute water crisis, former Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLA from Suryapet G. Jagadish Reddy has alleged.

Due to lack of irrigation, the crops are withering in large tracts of land across the State and are being abandoned, resulting in huge financial losses for farmers, Mr. Jagadish Reddy added.

“Farmers in undivided Nalgonda district are in deep distress due to lack of water in canals, drying up of borewells and withering of crops before the harvest stage,” Mr. Jagadish Reddy said. Along with former Nalgonda MLA K. Bhupal Reddy, he visited withered fields of paddy, citrus and chilli at Annaparthi village in Nalgonda mandal on Monday and enquired with the farmers about their woes.

Mr. Jagadish Reddy demanded that the Congress government in the State speak to the Karnataka government, where also the Congress is in power, and secure the release of 10 tmc ft from Almatti and Narayanpur dams to save the standing crops under Nagarjunasagar. The government was not exploring the possibilities of giving water under the Musi project, he alleged.

Withered crops crops were visible almost in every village this season, causing a huge loss to the farming community, the BRS leader said.

Neither Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy nor any of his Cabinet colleagues, including the two Ministers from the district – Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and N. Uttam Kumar Reddy – felt the need to enquire about the plight of the farmers, the BRS leader alleged.

Instead of devoting its energies to encouraging the defections of leaders, the Congress government should focus on surveying the crop loss and pay compensation of ₹50,000 per acre to paddy farmers and ₹80,000 per acre to chilli farmers, he demanded.