The Bharat Rashtra Samithi has demanded the withdrawal of police cases against 11 farmers who protested for the release of Jurala project water to protect their standing crops, intensifying a dispute over irrigation management in Telangana.
In a statement, BRS senior leader T. Harish Rao said the farmers had acted after becoming frustrated with what he described as the silence of irrigation officials. According to the statement, the farmers opened sluice gates at the project to allow water into a canal.
The BRS said the government should immediately withdraw the cases and ensure that irrigation water reaches farmland under the project. Harish Rao alleged that crops were withering because the government had failed to provide adequate irrigation, and accused the Congress government of victimising farmers after they took action themselves.
The party also criticised irrigation engineers for filing criminal cases against the farmers. Harish Rao described the cases as evidence of what he called the government’s recklessness in handling the situation. These allegations were made in the BRS statement and were not independently verified in the report.
The dispute places the operation of the Jurala project at the centre of a wider conflict between water-release decisions and the immediate needs of farmers whose crops depend on canal supplies. The reported action by the farmers also highlights the institutional role of irrigation officials and engineers in regulating sluice gates and distributing project water.
The number of farmers facing police cases was identified by the BRS as 11. The report did not specify the sections of law invoked, the police station where the cases were registered, the exact canal involved or the quantity of water sought by the farmers. It also did not include a response from the Telangana government, the irrigation department, the police or the affected farmers.
The BRS demand comes as the party seeks to frame the episode as both an irrigation failure and a law-and-order response to an agricultural crisis. Its statement called for the cases to be withdrawn and for the government to take steps to save standing crops through irrigation from the Jurala project.
The next steps will depend on whether the government responds to the demand, whether the irrigation department confirms the status of water releases and whether the police cases against the 11 farmers are reviewed or withdrawn.
