NIZAMABAD: Doomsday prophesiers have said that, in the future, wars will be fought over water. It seems we might be closer to this future than we realise. For humanity, water has always been an essential resource but it seems it has become its most valuable one as well. And who would know of this value better than a desperate farmer in Nizamabad district waiting for water to irrigate his farmlands that seem to be drying up by the hour?
It has been a rough time for farmers depending on irrigation waters from Sri Ram Sagar Project. They have staged multiple protests at the office of the superintending engineer, some of which even turned violent, demanding the authorities to release water. Seeing as how the region is on the verge of becoming a tinderbox yet again, the State government has decided to impose section 144 in the region.
Nizamabad police has begun making security arrangements at the SRSP project site and several villages. Three days ago, the farmers had decided to withdraw their protest after being assured by senior leaders that their demands for water would be answered soon. On Friday, a high-level meeting was held at Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy’s camp office in Hyderabad.
The meeting was attended by bigwigs such as Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao, MP K Kavitha, MLAs and MLCs and SRSP officials. However, no decision has been made yet. Seeing the writings on the wall, the police have been asked to ensure peace in the region. Nizamabad Commissioner of Police Karthikeya said that they were monitoring the situation and over 1,500 police had been deployed in and around 10 village police check posts.
The police has decided to not allow any unauthorised person into the SRSP office. Security has also been arranged at National Highway 47. The police have already registered cases on 15 farmers including several members from political parties. Police forces have also been brought from five districts and several SP and DSP rank officials also were in the security duties. After studying the officials report, the meeting opined that the present water levels did not give scope to release water in Kakathiya canal.
“We are studying requirements of all the canals and if SRSP receives water from upstream areas, we will release water into the canal,’’ Rao said. He said that the government designed SRSP regeneration scheme at an estimated cost of Rs 1,100 crore and works should be completed in next summer.