KURNOOL: Congress senior leader and former Union minister Kotla Surya Prakash Reddy said that Telugu Desam leaders are only interested in buying votes by shelling down ill-gotten wealth and not really interested in solving the people’s problems. He demanded Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his cabinet members to visit relatives of farmers who committed suicide in the district due to drought and low prices. He asked to facilitate minimum support price to the Tomatoes and other crops.
The former union minister said that ruling TD has no concern for the plight of the farmers who are committing suicides. He said that ruling the TD was backing out on their promise of providing water to farmers for 300 days in Kurnool district. He said that they were more interested in making money than in solving the farmer’s problems. He dared Prime Minister Narender Modi to come clean on the issue of unearthing black money in the country.
Kotla further said that the Srisailam Reservoir level was maintained at 854 ft till February-end in the past to cater to the irrigation needs of Rayalaseema districts and drinking water needs of Chennai city. Power generation was only taken up when the Srisailam Reservoir level fell and Nagarjunasagar ayacut needed water, he said. However, water was let-off from Srisailam reservoir with both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments undertaking power generation and its level fell rapidly by December, he said. As a result, 2.50 lakh acres of KC Canal ayacut, 1.60 lakh acres of Srisailam Right Branch Canal ayacut and 3.25 lakh acres of Telugu Ganga ayacut were in jeopardy, he said.
