Vijayawada: Though the Pulichintala project, which has been a long pending dream of the people of Krishna delta was formally inaugurated by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Saturday, the farming community is still a disappointed lot since their immediate concern, clarity over Rabi crop, remained unanswered.
Farmers in about 14 lakh acres of Krishna delta expected that the Chief Minister would give his nod to the farmers to take up irrigation works for the Rabi crop.
However, Kiran?Kumar Reddy skipped mention of the question uppermost in most farmers’ minds and devoted his energies in speaking about Samaikyandhra.
The farmers were hopeful of an announcement on Rabi from the moment ministers K. Parthasarathi and Kanna Lakshminarayana had said that the government would allow crop to be sown in the Rabi season and Chief Minister might confirm this at the Pulichintala meeting.
The farming community has been eager for the nod as the government had declared two consecutive crop holidays in the last two years.
The woes of the farming community had multiplied after about seven lakh acres of paddy fields, almost 50 per cent of the total area, were damaged in the Krishna delta due to the recent and successive cyclones.
Sakhamuri Mallikarjuna Rao, a farmer in Valluripalem village in Krishna district, said that he was deeply disappointed after CM’s meeting due to there was no announcement in favour of Rabi.
Samata Party leader P. Madhu said that had the Chief Minister announced Rabi crop at the meeting, farmers in the entire delta area would have been happy.
