No Power, Water for Farmers in Telangana. Blame Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Says KCR

Hyderabad: The war of words between the Chief Ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh continues; this time, it's over who is responsible for the dire situation farmers of India's newly-created state find themselves in.

While insufficient rains and an acute power shortage play havoc with the lives of farmers in Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao or KCR is busy blaming his Andhra Pradesh counterpart Chandrababu Naidu for the crisis.

"The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister has, it seems, taken a vow to deprive Telangana of power and water-share, so that crops on our fields dry up. We will not let that happen,'' he said at a public meeting in Malkajgiri on Sunday, November 2.

Mr Naidu, meanwhile, has blamed the crisis on "mismanagement" on the part of KCR, saying he failed to plan ways to combat the shortage, and now wants to pass the buck. Earlier, in seemingly an open challenge to KCR, Mr Naidu said, "Let them hand over the power portfolio to us for two weeks and we will show them what can be done".

Both state governments have now approached the Centre to resolve simmering power and water-sharing issues that is threatening to explode on the ground. Telangana Irrigation and Power Minister T Harish Rao met Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti yesterday, while Andhra Pradesh Irrigation Minister Uma Maheswara Rao met Ms Bharti today.

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Parakala Prabhakar, an advisor to the Andhra Pradesh government,  claimed that the state, once facing a power deficit of 24 million units, today can boast of zero deficit.

"We actively purchased power from all over the country, spending Rs 11.5 crore every day," Mr Prabhakar said, adding that the Telangana government had "grossly mismanaged" the situation.

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Telangana, he said, started off with a power deficit of 2 million units and is now in need of 34 million units.

"These deaths (farmer suicides) that are happening could have been prevented. But they grossly mismanaged the power and water supply, leading to this crisis,'' he said.

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The fallout of the non-stop battle between the two states has been felt by farmers like Praveen and Srinivas in Telangana's Medak district. With no rain and the power supply not sufficient enough to draw water from the borewell, their paddy fields have turned into fodder for cattle.

"If there was power, I would have saved at least two acres out of the three acres of paddy. Now it is all gone. So I gave up on paddy and left the little water I get for one acre of cotton,'' says Srinivas.