TDP leaders slam govt for maintenance failure

PNS|ONGOLE

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders, including MLAs Gottipati Ravikumar, Swamy, and former MLA Damacharla Janardhan, criticised the YSRCP-led government for its failure in maintaining the Kandula Obula Reddy Gundlakamma project.

The TDP leaders, along with BN Vijay Kumar, Kandula Narayana Reddy, and a group of farmers and other leaders, visited the Gundlakamma project located at Mallavaram village in Maddipadu mandal on Friday. The TDP leaders saw the broken crest gate of the project and the gushing of water from the project.

Speaking on this occasion, former MLA Damachrala Janardhan alleged that the YSRCP-led government had failed in maintaining the project efficiently resulting in one crest gate of the project falling down and leaks developed and two other gates. The government’s negligence had left the farmers in the lurch as the water from the project was gushing out waste.

The ex-MLA said that three months ago the gate of the Gundlakamma project was broken but that had not been repaired and reinstalled so far which is reflecting the inefficiency and indifference of the government.

“There is only 1.7 tmc of water in the project now as against its full capacity of 3 tmc. The farmers have raised chili and maize crops depending on the Gundlakamma project water on more than 80,000 acres and the farmers are expressing concern over the availability of water for their crops. The farmers need water in 15-20 days to water their crops but water is gushing out of the project due to lack of minimum maintenance during the last three and half years,” he alleged.

Ex-MLA Janardhan slammed the government that tenders had not been invited to carry out repairs to the broken crest number 3 and replace it. The repairing works were left incomplete for gate number 6 and 7 resulting in the leaking of water. He questioned whether it was not a failure of the government to divert about 15 tmc of water from the upper part of Tarabi to the sea due to failure in installing a new gate in the place of the broken gate.

The farmers had invested lakhs of rupees to raise their crop and now they were left in the lurch, he deplored. “Except for stoking caste, religious and regional hatred among people, the YSRCP-led government has not done anything for the development of the State and it has also failed in efficient maintenance of irrigation projects,” former MLA Damacharla Janardhan lashed out.