Vijayawada: With each passing day, anger against the verdict of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal is increasing in the district, even as political parties are trying their best to score brownie points over the issue.
Members of various farmers’ associations and political parties staged massive protests at Benz Circle, demanding the state government act now to get the verdict, a setback to the state, particularly the tail-end Krishna and Godavari deltas, reversed.
Traffic was blocked for about an hour as farmers, led by Telugu Desam, BJP, CPI, and CPM, squatted on all sides of the Benz Circle. Telugu Rythu president Ch. Anjaneyulu said that if the government allows the verdict awarded by the tribunal to be implemented, the Krishna and Godavari deltas would turn into a desert and cultivating paddy would become next to impossible.
“The region would lose its agricultural prosperity,” he said, adding that the price of rice would skyrocket to Rs 200 per kg from Rs 50 per kg at present. The protesters were arrested for blocking traffic and later released.
Earlier, TD leader G. Rammohan Rao staged a novel protest, serving breakfast to passersby. “The people will be forced to look for alternatives to eke out their livelihood as cultivating paddy will be impossible due to lack of irrigation water,” he said.
TD district chief D. Umamaheswara Rao demanded the government appoint an efficient prosecutor who can highlight before the Tribunal the losses AP would incur due to the verdict.
In the evening, YSRC activists staged a protest near Prakasam Barrage, where party district chief S. Udaya Bhanu said that they would intensify the stir against the verdict. Protests were also registered at Machilipatnam, Nuzvid, Gudivada, Mylavaram and other places of the district against the verdict.
