Revanth’s Water Budget: Zero Drops, Full Credit
Farmers get crop advice while the government keeps irrigating its own publicity machine.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has delivered Telangana’s most honest agricultural forecast yet: “Not a single drop of water will be available” for irrigation from November to February. The crisis may last eight to ten months. Around 15 lakh of the state’s 30 lakh agricultural pump sets have already run dry. The wells, apparently, filed the situation report before the Secretariat did.
This is where the Congress government’s doublespeak begins its seasonal harvest. Farmers were promised a ₹500 bonus over the ₹2,400 MSP for seven varieties of fine rice, taking the promised price to ₹2,900 a quintal. Revanth also said traders were offering ₹3,500–₹4,000 in advance. Excellent news, provided anybody can explain the small administrative detail of where the rice is supposed to grow. The government promised farmers a better price for rice and then offered them a more efficient crop: no crop.
To be fair, rainfall, El Niño and depleted reservoirs are not inventions of the Chief Minister’s media team. Drinking water must come first. But a government that announces the irrigation shutdown after half the pump sets have gone dry is not managing a crisis; it is holding a press conference about the discovery of one. Revanth wants the bonus to count as achievement, the drought to count as fate and the public to count the difference as gratitude. That is not policy. It is accounting by mood.
And then there is the Musi riverfront project, reportedly carrying an estimated price tag of about ₹1.5 lakh crore, while questions remain about the detailed project report. Farmers are being told to shift to less water-intensive crops, conserve every drop and accept an eight-month emergency. Hyderabad, meanwhile, is being offered a beautification vision large enough to require its own monsoon. Water for agriculture is an emergency; beautification is a vision document with a very large cheque attached. Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka and the rest of the ministry may call this prioritisation. Telangana can call it what it is: a government more comfortable announcing hardship than preventing it.
Telangana does not need a government that merely announces the drought after the wells have done the reporting.
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