The Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to save the life of Horticulture Crops during the drought like situation by taking drought proof measurements in the State, Chief Secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao said.
The Chief Secretary convened a video conference with all the District Collectors to discuss on seasonal conditions in the State. Senior Officers from Agriculture, Panchayat Raj, Rural Water Supply, Irrigation Departments have participated in the meeting.
As the drought prevailed in the State due to deficit in rainfall, the Chief Secretary directed the District Officers concerned to form the teams with Agriculture, Horticulture Officers and Scientists at District level to visit villages and to interact with the Farmers to know the problems being faced by them. The team may guide the farmers to resolve their problems. To safe guard the crops wide publicity to be given to protect the crops during the drought like situation, he said.
To mitigate the drought conditions in harvesting of acid lime and sweet orange, identify the smaller and larger farmers for supplying water for the crops. The Chief Secretary has permitted the District Collectors for taking the precautionary measures to supply the water by hiring bore wells from the owners where available; and to transport water for horticulture plants to give life saving irrigation and as well as for drinking. It was decided to go for life saving irrigation for acid lime and sweet lime in Ananthapuram, Nellore and Prakasam Districts.
Drought proof measures to be taken with excellence in all the Districts to save the moisture for general agriculture like ground nut, red-gram, Bengal-gram etc., There is a continuous need to review on seed procurement by the District Officers to position the seed, Chief Secretary suggested.
While reviewing on the Handri Niva Sujala Sravanthi (HNSS) Scheme, the Chief Secretary informed that completion of the works is essential of HNSS as the targeted time is very short to release of water for irrigation in Kadapa, Ananthapur and Chittoor Districts for lakh of Acres and also to supply of drinking water for lakhs of population. The water requirement for the project is estimated to be about 40 TMC including drinking water proposed to be utilized from surplus water of Krishna. The lift is proposed from foreshore of Srisailam Reservoir of Kurnool District. Krishna Rao directed the Irrigation Department Officials to write a letter to Krishna Water Board to release the water from Nagarjuna Sagar Project to meet the needs.
Rayalaseema, Prakasam and Nellore Districts are in position to supply the drinking water by taking various precautionary measures till the situation improves. Due to major brunt of the drought in the state, separate action plan have to be prepared to solve the drinking water problem in all the regions. By utilizing the other sources to mitigate the drinking water problem, the District Officers need to concentrate to filling up the summer storage water tanks in all the areas. Government has already released necessary budget for the drought proof.
Spl. Chief Secretary Revenue Ajeya Kallam, Prl. Secretary Irrigation Adityanath Das, Spl. C.S. EFS&T Spl. Chief secretary Agriculture T. Vijaya Kumar and others attended the meeting. (INN)