Gadwal, Mahbubnagar district:
After NDTV's report that 101 farmers had killed themselves in Telangana in the last two months, the K Chandrashekar Rao government says not just bad rains are to blame. They say they have inherited the legacy of political neglect that allowed massive corruption in irrigation projects. Which meant despite huge spending of thousands of crores on major projects that are meant to irrigate lakhs of acres, not even a single acre of crop is getting watered.
On the roadside in Gadwal area of Mahbubnagar district, Jayamma hopes to feed little Manikeshwari something other than rice and chilly powder today. She and her husband Chinna Laxman are feeling lucky to have got some road-digging work after two months of sitting idle. No rains this kharif season meant they could not cultivate their own little piece of land and they could not get work as farm labour either.
"Without rains, it is really difficult. If we get some work, we can eat. Otherwise situation is bad," Jayamma said.
This couple lives in an area that should have been irrigated by the Nettampadu lift irrigation project in Mahbubnagar district of Telangana. Project manager Ram Babu says both Phase I and Phase II of the lift irrigation project became operational more than a year ago.
The project was to irrigate two lakh acres but it is not watering even a single acre. That is because canals that are meant to carry water to the pump station are not ready, though money has been paid for it.
The feeder canal that is meant to send water to the Nettampadu project was meant to be completed in three years, by 2007. But there have been delays, and cost escalation from Rs 1200 to 1400 to 1800 crore now. The contractor is not penalised for the delay, it is the government which pays up the escalated cost.
Water expert Ranganath Reddy says no one has ever been penalised for these delays. "In fact, some contractors are absconding after taking the money. It is all because of contractor-politician nexus," Mr Reddy said.
The situation of the storage reservoirs that are, on paper, part of the irrigation plan for the area, is no better.
The New Sangala reservoir, for example, built at a cost of Rs 9.5 crore over Rs 1200 crore, does not hold even one cusec of water. That is because the feeder canals were built at a lower height instead of higher, so no water can flow into it.
Near the Jurala project site nearby, we found piles of broken, discarded water supply pipes, as though testimony to the corruption and leakage that has ensured no water reaches the farmer.
These were sub-standard pipes used to supply drinking water to 180 villages from Jurala reservoir. But the pipes broke in at least one hundred locations, so at least Rs 80 crore went down the drain.
The irony of Mahbubnagar district that has the Krishna, Tungabhadra and a dozen other rivers flowing through it and yet reports the largest migrations in search of livelihood anywhere in the world.