Tension at Jurala project

Tension prevailed in the vicinity of the Jurala project in Telangana's Jogulamba Gadwal district on Monday as police stopped BRS leaders and farmers from heading towards the project.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) had called for a dharna at the dam in support of the farmers' agitation, demanding release of water to save their crops.

Police personnel deployed around the dam stopped the protestors, leading to an argument. A scuffle broke out as protestors tried to march ahead by breaking the police cordon.

Police detained several protestors, including former MLA Chittam Rammohan Reddy.

A large number of farmers and BRS workers gathered at various points to march towards the dam.

Tension has been building up at the dam since September 19, when some farmers released water from the head regulator into the Left Canal. They were irked by what they call the apathy of authorities concerned in releasing water.

However, officials later closed the regulator. Security was beefed up at the dam to prevent any incident.

Heavy police deployment was in place in view of the protest call given by the BRS.

BRS leaders said that police personnel were stationed at every step in the 12-kilometre radius around the dam.

Barricades were erected on roads and police vehicles were used to block traffic and conduct checks. This brought traffic movement on the Atmakur-Gadwal highway to a halt.

Police resorted to house arrests and detentions at various places in the district to foil the protest.

Former ministers Niranjan Reddy and Laxma Reddy were among those placed under house arrest. Mandal-level leaders of BRS were taken into preventive custody since the morning.

Farmers have been demanding that officials release water to save their crops, especially paddy crops. However, citing El Nino and a lack of clearance from senior authorities, project officials were not releasing water.

The farmers disputed the claims of the officials that the release of water for farming would have an impact on the drinking water supply.

The current live capacity of the project is 5.1 TMC ft against its gross capacity of 8.81 TMC ft.

Meanwhile, BRS Working President K.T. Rama Rao condemned the detention and arrests of farmers and BRS leaders who were protesting for water, including former ministers and BRS leaders from erstwhile Palamuru (Mahabubnagar) district.

He demanded that the Telangana government immediately release irrigation water to Jurala ayacut farmers and protect their standing crops.