Pilferage cuts Krishna water to a trickle

Tamil Nadu PWD officials reasoned that farmers along the Kandaleru-Poondi canal were indulging in drawing water by illegal pumping it out, which led to the decline in the inflow. Further, they have approached their counterpart to keep a tab on this malpractice to ensure the free flow.

“The AP irrigation department did not stop releasing water but there is no inflow. We have formulated a team to monitor from the zero point and similarly, we communicated this issue to AP officials,” a senior engineer said, adding that since north-east monsoon failed in AP too, the farmers use Krishna water for irrigation purpose. 

Another official said that in the 152 km-long canal, there are around 900 small sluices and though PWD staff are monitoring such sluices, farmers are illegally pumping water from the canal by blindfolding the staff.