Boon for city dwellers, bane for farmers

By T. Lakshmipathi

HYDERABAD, APRIL 5. Farmers of Manjira river basin in Medak district are restive. They waited too long for water to reach their fields. In the process, they made no small sacrifice to quench the thirst of Hyderabad.

It looks like a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The lands and habitations of the villagers were submerged under the Singur project built to supply drinking water to the city. Broken promises of the rulers led to their farms drying up every year though the river meanders its way through in the vicinity.

Some of the displaced families settled in slums around the city. The Manjira which turned into boon for Hyderabadis ended up as a mirage for the poor villagers, if not a curse. An estimated 11,000 families were uprooted, 32 villages submerged completely and 69 villages partially on account of construction of Singur reservoir near Jogipet in Pulkal mandal in 1976. Nearly 33,000 acres of cultivable land was inundated. Even after two decades or more, the victims have not received full compensation for the lost lands.

Fresh moves of the Government to augment water supply to the city from Singur reservoir are the source of the current unrest among farmers of this arid belt. They are beginning to organise themselves to ensure that Singur meets their needs even as it continues to serve Hyderabad. "The move threatens to inundate another 20,000 acres in 13 villages as the dam height is proposed to be raised", fears G. Innaiah of Telangana Study Forum.

Last month, a good number of farmers gathered at Chalki village in Nalakal mandal for a dharna organised by the Congress to highlight the injustice done to them. The immediate provocation for the protests was the report of the Government intending to lay another pipeline to the city from Singur. "We will break the pipeline. How long will they deny water to us", a farmer at the dharna site fumed.

"I lost 15 acres of land under the project. They paid me a compensation of Rs. 7,500 per acre for seven acres. What about the remaining money?" asked another farmer, P. Dharma Reddy.

More than the compensation due to them over the years, farmers are sore that the promised water from Singur is not released to their fields.

Originating in the hill ranges of Baalaghat in Bhid district of Maharashtra, the Manjira traverses through Nizamabad and Medak districts over a distance of 426 miles before merging into the Godavari river at Sathapur in Nizamabad district. The first project to be built on the Manjira was Ghanapuram anicut by the erstwhile Nizam Government in 1905. It served an ayacut of 30,000 acres.

The Nizamsagar reservoir was the second project built on the river in Nizamabad district in 1931 with a capacity of 29.72 TMC ft to serve an ayacut of 2.75 lakh acres. Its capacity over the years dipped to 11 TMC ft due to heavy silting. A balancing reservoir was proposed upstream at Devanur in early '50s. But it was given up as Devanur formed part of Karnataka after the linguistic States came into being.

The Bachawat Tribunal has assessed availability of water in the Manjira at 103 TMC ft at 75 per cent dependability. Andhra Pradesh's share under the award was 65 TMC ft. The Singur project was taken up in 1975 originally as a balancing reservoir for Nizamabad and Ghanapuram anicuts with a capacity of 30 TMC ft. Of this, four TMC ft of water was earmarked to meet the drinking water requirements of Hyderabad. A G.O. was issued in 1980 allocating water from Singur for 40,000 acres in Medak and Nizamabad districts.

"Barring two vents provided at the project not a single meter of canal was built to reach the water to the fields. The compensation due to farmers for the lost lands runs into Rs. 80 crores", complains Narayankhed MLA, Mr. P. Kista Reddy. At the District Development Review Committee meetings, both Telugu Desam and Congress MLAs drew references to the Government's failure to keep the promise to farmers.

"We are not against water being taken to Hyderabad from Singur. All that farmers are asking for is that Singur should also serve their needs as a balancing reservoir. It cannot be a permanent source of drinking water for Hyderabad at the cost of the villagers", Mr. A. Vittal Reddy, Ramayampet MLA, said summing up the anguish of the farming community.

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