Minister for Roads and Buildings V. Prashanth Reddy on Saturday said that plans are afoot to bring Godavari river water under Kaleshwaram project to fill the Nizam Sagar Project via the Haldi reservoir. Thereby, water would be released to different areas by lifting it at Nagamadugu, he added.
To solve the water woes of farmers, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has designed new projects since the formation of Telangana and those were becoming a reality one after another, said Mr. Prashanth Reddy. Growing crops to an optimum level in the State was the CM’s wish, he added, addressing an awareness camp for farmers on new agriculture policy at Achampet in Jukkal constituency.
Advising the farmers to grow only those crops which had demand in the market, he made it clear that the State government was not ready to purchase more than 40% of the produce. The Chief Minister has asked officials to purchase 100% produce as of now, but this could not be expected every time, he added. The government has constituted two expert committees to suggest raising crops on different kinds of soils and how to market them, he said.
Attacking the Congress, Mr. Prashanth Reddy said those who ruled the State for 50 years were critical of TRS government’s agriculture policy, but they never thought of supplying free power 24x7 to farm sector, providing water, seed and fertilizers. He said in the current season, paddy was cultivated on 80 lakh acres but it would be enough if raised on 70 lakh acres, of which ‘sannam rakam’ variety of paddy must be grown more as a majority of people prefer that.
