Jurala farmers in the lurch as K'taka Refuses to Release Water

 VV Balakrishna
Express News Service
Last Updated : 16 Apr 2012 10:21:25 AM IST

HYDERABAD: With the Karnataka government being indifferent to the water requirements of farmers under the Jurala Priayadarshini irrigation project in Mahbubnagar district, standing crops like paddy and groundnut raised in around 69,000 acres are about to wither away.

The inflows into the Jurala reservoir from the Narayanapur dam in Karnataka have come down drastically in the last two months.

The inflows were 2,800 cusecs in January, 764 in February, 792 in March and zero in April.

Though the state government requested the Karnataka government to release 5 tmcft of water from Narayanapur to Jurala, the government of the neighbouring state turned down the request. It is willing to release only 2 tmcft of water which will not be sufficient to save the stand crops.

As a result, farmers of paddy and groundnut are about to lose a produce worth Rs 100 crore this time. Such a situation under the Jurala ayacut was unprecedented, district leaders said.

Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy sent a letter to his Karnataka counterpart Sadananda Goud requesting him to release 5 tmcft of water to Jurala.

The letter was personally handed over by Jurala irrigation project superintending engineer to the Karnataka chief minister.

But the Karnataka chief minister expressed his inability to release water for agricultural needs. He informed Jurala officials that Karnataka could, at best, release 2 tmcft of water for drinking water needs but not for agricultural needs.

Leader of the opposition N Chandrababu Naidu wanted the Karnataka chief minister to release about 3 tmcft of water to Jurala.

The standing crops needed water for another 25 days.

Otherwise, they would dry up and cause heavy losses to farmers, Naidu said.

Union minister S Jaipal Reddy too requested the Karnataka government to release 5 tmcft of water but he too failed to convince the neighbouring state. Whether it was Rajolibanda diversion scheme or Jurala, the Mahbubnagar farmers have always been facing untold hardships due to the attitude of Karnataka.

The mistakes committed by Jurala officials such as not undertaking repairs to 62 radial crest gates compounded the woes of the farmers of the district. As the crest gates were damaged and could not be operated, around 5,000 cusecs of water has been flowing waste downstream for about two months.

Project officials realised in the third week of March that the water level at Jurala was going down. They placed sand bags near the crest gates to avoid further wastage of water.

But by then sufficient damage had been caused to farmers.

The water level at Jurala as on Sunday is 5.342 tmcft, just a trifle higher than the dead storage level of 5 tmcft. That means officials can use only 0.34 tmcft of water which is sufficient only for a few days.

The inflow into Jurala was nil on Sunday whereas the outlflow was 687 cusecs. The storage level at Narayanpur is 18.2 tmcft and inflow is 491 cusecs and outflow nil.

The water level at Narayanapur being treble the Jurala level and satisfactory, Jurala project officials requested Karnataka to release 5 tmcft of water. Normally, the water release for rabi crops under Narayanapur dam would flow into Jurala project.

When Karnataka released water from Narayanapur for rabi crops, some water would seep into the Jurala reservoir. Between 1,000 to 2,000 cusecs of water from Narayanapur would seep into Jurala daily in normal circumstances, which was sufficient for rabi crops under the Jurala ayacut.

According to sources, the seepage stopped this time as Karnataka farmers tapped even the seeping water throgh as many as 80 lift irrigation schemes.

This affected the interests of farmers under the Juralal project.

TDP MLA from Mahbubnagar district Ravula Chandrasekhara Reddy requested the Karnataka government to release water for another 25 days to save Jurala farmers.

TDP leaders met chief minister N Kiran Reddy recently and represented the plight of the farmers.

No seepage even

Between 1,000 to 2,000 cusecs of water from Narayanapur would seep into Jurala daily in normal circumstances, which was sufficient for rabi crops under the Jurala ayacut. Now there is seepage as Karnataka farmers tapped even the seeping water through 80 lift irrigation projects.