The Hindu Business Line : Don't trade off crops for power, Govt told

THE Federation of Farmers' Associations, Andhra Pradesh, has urged the State Government not to sacrifice the interests of farmers in the Krishna delta for the sake of power generation and to maintain the water level at the Nagarjunasagar at 512 ft to ensure timely release of water for the delta in the first week of June.

At a press conference here on Thursday, Mr A. Bhavani Prasad, Vice-President of the federation, said the farmers in the delta were paying a heavy price each year because of the short-sighted policies of the State Government. He said water was being let out for the past four weeks at the Nagarjunasagar for hydel power generation and the level in the reservoir was going down.

"There is no possibility to store much water at the Prakasam barrage here and for years we have argued for a balancing reservoir at Pulichintala, between Nagarjunasagar and the barrage here to store water and ensure timely release for the crops in the Krishna delta. But the Pulichintala project is still hanging fire,'' he said.

He said the State should maintain the requisite water level at the Sagar dam and buy power from other States, if necessary. "The economic costs of sacrificing crops in 13 lakh acres in the four delta districts are too high compared to power purchase costs,'' he said and added that the yields were going down every year with the late release of water.

The State Government was being overzealous and imposing many unnecessary curbs on tobacco consumption, unmindful of the fact that Andhra Pradesh was the prime producer of Virginia tobacco in the country, he added.

"The Supreme Court's directives on curbing smoking in public places should be honoured and adhered to, without killing the industry and the farmers. In any event, it cannot be achieved overnight. Alternative cropping patterns should be encouraged and crores of people dependent on the industry should be shown alternative means of livelihood, before taking such drastic steps,'' he said.

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