Farmers want KRMB officeestablished in Kurnool

Farmers from all over the district joined the Rayalaseema Saguneeti Sadhana Samiti protest in Nandyal town on Saturday demanding the establishment of Krishna River Management Board office(KRMB) at Kurnool and held a dharna in front of the Gandhi statue in the town.

Samithi president Bojja Dasharatharami Reddy along with other farmer leaders condemned the efforts of the government to set up the office in Visakhapatnam. Mr. Reddy said that in the last KRM meeting in December, the government, which had earlier sought establishment of the office in Vijayawada (Amaravati) had made a fresh request to shift it to Visakhapatnam, an area that is not even remotely connected to Krishna river basin or the farmers depending on it for irrigation water.

The leaders submitted a memorandum to the Gandhi statue and raised slogans demanding location of the office in Kurnool as Srisailam is the major reservoir catering to the drinking water and irrigation needs of the people and every year depending on the availability of the water, decisions need to be taken in the KRMB, hence locating it in Kurnool would be beneficial, he said.

A meeting of all farmer bodies and leaders is scheduled on January 6 in Vijayawada and took a decision to urge the government to establish the KRMB office in Kurnool instead of Visakhapatnam, he observed.