ELURU: The story of realtor-farmer row over the construction of a bridge across the Krishna eastern canal on Tuesday took a turn with a section of farmers coming out in support of the bridge construction.

With the latest development, interests of the farmers of tail-end ayacut seem running counter to those of their counterparts in the upper reaches of the canal. Addressing a press conference, the farmers from Venkatapuram, Satrampadu and Vatluru villages supported the bridge construction in the wake of a threat held out by the tail-end farmers in Denduluru constituency that they would blast the structure.

Distance

Tail-end farmers, who laid siege to the bridge site a few days ago, claim that obstruction of flow of water by the bridge with two spans would pose a serious threat to the irrigation prospects in their areas. However, the farmers in the upper reaches contended that the bridge would help in appreciation of the value of their lands and provide a road access to their fields. "We are constrained to take our produce to the market yard through Vatluru now. If the bridge is constructed, travelling distance will come down by 5 km and also the transport cost to that extent," K. Ranga Rao, a farmer representative from Venkatapuram gram panchayat, said. Denying the role of realtors in construction of the bridge as alleged by tail-end farmers, Mr. Ranga Rao claimed that the farmers themselves had pooled up Rs 40 lakhs at the rate of Rs 50,000 per acre voluntarily and started building the bridge for their own welfare. He regretted that the perceived running feud between the Congress MLAs of Denduluru and Eluru had cast a shadow over the bridge construction and the very prospects of the farmers in upper reaches.

Incidentally, Eluru MLA Alla Kalikrishna Srinivas laid the foundation stone for the bridge, which is being opposed by the followers of Denduluru MLA Maganti Venkateswara Rao.

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