Focus on farming in T reports

In the run up to the scheduled tour of Srikrishna Committee members in Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Adilabad districts from March 31, leaders of political parties, mass organisations and groups are preparing to submit their views to the panel members.

Two members of the five- member Srikrishna Committee — Ms Ravinder Kaur and Abusaleh Shariff — will tour the district to elicit opinion from various sections of the population on the Telangana issue. Some organisations like Retired Employees Association, Nizamabad Chamber of Commerce and students organisations besides some public representatives have already sent their letters to the committee.

The main theme in the various submissions is expected to be the sorry state of agriculture in the district, which during Nizam rule itself, saw a golden age.

Even before the formation of Andhra Pradesh, the district boasts of Nizamsagar project which had 2.5 lakh acre ayacut.

However, leaders and organisations advocating Telangana state lament that due to negligence of the successive governments in the united state, the project saw its capacity gradually reduced and is now catering only to the needs of one lakh acres.

As a result, a large number of farmers have resorted to indiscriminate digging of borewells — according to estimates the number of borewells in the district is about 3 lakh — thus depending completely on ground waters and electricity. The recurring power shortage in the state led to uncertainty in farming causing huge losses to farmers and suicides.

Though Gutpa-Ali Sagar projects were built to stabilise Nizamsagar ayacut, lack of flow in Godavari due to building of projects upstream in Maharashtra, farmers got no relief.

The failure of agriculture has also triggered migration of rural populace to Gulf countries as well as other places in the country.

Political parties and organisations are in the process of preparing reports encompassing all these aspects of the problem to submit to the committee members.