Andhra Pradesh

Festive occasion for Dharmasagar

Photo: M. Murali

‘TESTING’ WATERS: Congress leader Ponnala Vaishali feels the water being released into Dharmasagar tank from Devadula project in Warangal on Monday.

DHARMASAGAR (WARANGAL DT): As water gushed out from the huge pipe at the Dharmasagar tank, hundreds of people from surrounding villages came to witness the event, cheered and offered floral tributes revering it as ‘Gangamma Talli’. Women turned sentimental and filled the water in bottles and carried it home to sprinkle it in their houses.

“Godavari Talli has walked into our precincts at last. It has been our long dream to see water filling this tank,” said T Saraswathamma, a villager who maintained that it would put an end to their woes.

Officials have been releasing water since late Sunday night into the Dharmasagar tank which was remodelled into a reservoir to hold 1.5 tmcft of water to cater to the needs of the people of Warangal town and to irrigate 50,000 acres of land in the surrounding villages.

The age-old tank catered to the needs of irrigation and drinking water. But of late, due to depleted inflows and lack of maintenance, it had almost become defunct. With the government taking up the Devadula project, the plan also included filling the Dharmasagar tank from which water would be lifted to supply it till Jangaon and other drought-hit mandals.

After a lot of hiccups and leakages, water finally is being pumped into the Dharmasagar tank. It was a festival-like atmosphere here with Ministers Ponnala Lakshmaiah and D S Redya Naik turning up with scores of Congress workers to witness the event and join the villagers to celebrate the auspicious occasion.

Seeing the mood, Mr. Redya Naik turned poetic and said that despite all the odds and bottlenecks created by the Opposition parties, the Chief Minister had succeeded in fulfilling his promise of providing water to the desperate farmers.

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