Telugu Desam Party MP from Anantapur J C Diwakar Reddy’s sensational announcement of resignation as MP for failing to ensure water in Chagallu Reservoir in his native Tadipatri has turned out to be a big drama.
Following his resignation threat, TDP president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu asked Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao to look into the issue.
Within hours, the irrigation department officials, following the oral orders from the minister, released water to Chagallu Reservoir from Penna Ahobilam Balancing Reservoir (PABR) at a discharge rate of 300 cusecs.
Apparently, Diwakar Reddy’s family is understood to have several hundreds of acres of land in the ayacut of Chagallu Reservoir.
As per the irrigation department sources, water cannot be released to Chagallu from PABR for irrigation, except for drinking water purposes. But JC’s family has been drawing water from PABR for several years in the name of drinking water and using the same for irrigation during the Kharif season.
JC’s high handed behaviour has caused a lot of unrest among the farmers under PABR and they questioned how the government succumbed to the MP’s resignation pressure and release water to his crops.
What is worse, JC gave another twist to his drama. He wanted that the government issued orders making permanent allotment of water to Chagallu from PABR.
“Till then, I will stick to my resignation,” he announced.
