SANGAREDDY: Just like all farmers who are already reeling under several financial crisis due to the Covid outbreak, those ryots whose lands fall under the ayacut region of Singur project too have no reason to be excited about, as the area has not yet received any rain. It has to be mentioned here that the Singur farmers, after an eight-year-long wait, finally heaved a sigh of relief in 2016, after the State government decided to release water from the project’s left canal to around 30,000 acres of farmland in the area.
However, the situation is still the same, with the farmers struggling to get irrigation water for carrying out cultivation. In 2016, the first KCR government had decided to provide irrigation water to 40,000 acres under the Singur project using both its left and right canals. However, as the works pertaining to the right canal could not be completed, the officials concerned had only been able to provide water to 30,000 acres till recently, which too has hit a roadblock due to lack of water in the reservoir
. It has to be mentioned here that during the initial days, things were smooth and the officials had managed to provide required quantity of irrigation water to all, which made the district farmers think that the days of hardships are long gone and they can finally cultivate crops as per their desire. However, their dreams soon went down drain as the curse of dry spells started stymieing the district. For almost three years now, the district has not been receiving proper rains.
Will the rain god bless Singur project this time?
In the meantime, the Singur farmers are hopeful that their hardships will finally come to an end this time as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted higher than normal rainfall this year. Though various parts of the district have already started receiving good rainfall, the flood flow to has been low, as a result of which the water level remain unchanged. According to officials, the current water level in the project is just 0.44 tmcft, which would be sufficient only for another 15 days. Meanwhile, a district-level official told Express that they have been able to maintain the water at least to this level as the Singur water is not being supplied under Mission Bhagiratha and observed that it would have dried out long back otherwise.