Jurala protest meets the Congress government’s barricades
BRS leaders and farmers were stopped from reaching the project over irrigation-water release. The water figures remain claims; the police intervention does not.
Barricades were deployed as the dispute over Jurala’s water figures continued.
The Congress government in Telangana had an answer to farmers seeking irrigation water at Priyadarshini Jurala on Monday: stop them before they reach the project.
Telangana Today reported that police detained former Makthal MLA Chittem Rammohan Reddy at Nandimalla in Amarachintha while he was speaking to reporters. Farmers and BRS workers reportedly stopped the police vehicle carrying him and raised slogans demanding water. Former ministers Singireddy Niranjan Reddy and C. Laxma Reddy, former MLA A. Venkateshwar Reddy and other BRS leaders were also reported to have been placed under house arrest. Police cordoned off the project.
K.T. Rama Rao said the authorities were offering “unconvincing excuses” for not releasing water. The BRS claims Jurala held about 9 TMC and that roughly 2 TMC was needed for drinking water. No current official storage or discharge bulletin supporting those figures was found. A separate report said farmers had opened the left-canal gates on September 20, but that account also rests partly on BRS material. The Congress government has not bothered to publish the operational record that would settle the argument. It has, however, found the paperwork for barricades.