Minister Swamy requests Central team to extend all help

Ongole: The Minister for Social Justice, Disabled and Old-aged Welfare, VSWS, and Volunteers Systems Dr Dola Sree Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy requested the members of the Inter-Ministerial Central Team visiting the district on Thursday to extend all the possible help to farmers, during the drought-hit period.

The IMCT members Mannu G Upadhyay, SC Kashyap, Madan Mohan Mourya, and B Anuradha met with the minister Swamy, collector AS Dinesh Kumar, joint collector Ronanki Gopalakrishna and the concerned officers at the Collectorate here on Thursday morning. The minister explained to the members that the Prakasam district is one of the drought-hit and backward districts in the state, and the atmosphere resembles the districts in the Rayalaseema region.

A major part of agriculture is on rain fed crops, and the locals depend on the transportation of water through tankers for drinking needs. Condition of farmers is pitiful as the drought conditions prevail at ground-level.

Collector explained the drought conditions department-wise in the district to the members through a PowerPoint presentation, to the IMCT Drought Committee members.

Out of the 38 mandals in the district, 31 mandals are already notified as drought-hit. In them, he said that 20 mandals including the Yerragondapalem, Dornala, Kurichedu, Mundlamuru, Darsi, Podili, Marripadu, Peddaraveedu, Markapuram, Cumbum, Tarlupadu, Hanumanthunipadu, Veligandla, Pedacherlopalli, Chandrasekharapuram, Pamuru, Santhanuthalapadu, Ongole, Kothapatnam, Pullalacheruvu as severe drought mandals.

A total of 36,147 farmers lost crops of paddy, chickpea, black gram, groundnut, and millets in about 29,713 hectares. He said that they estimated input subsidy for a total of Rs 25.54 crore under the NDRF and Rs 29.40 crore under the SDRF guidelines. He said that they supplied drinking water through tankers in the villages suffering from severe scarcity of drinking water.

They require a sum of Rs 62.01 crore to assist the affected farmers under the RWS and Animal Husbandry departments. Collector requested the members to submit a favourable report to help the farmers get maximum assistance from the government.

The IMCT members inspected the drought conditions through a photo exhibition at the Collectorate before proceeding to inspect the loss at ground level at Vemulakota, Kollabhimunipadu of Markapur mandal, Gobburu of Peddaraveedu mandal, Ayinamukkala of Dornala mandal by interacting with the farmers and locals, before leaving to Vijayawada to prepare the report.