Eluru: Infuse confidence in farmers, officials told

Eluru : District collector Prasanna Venkatesh held a teleconference with RDOs, tahsildars, MPDOs, officials of agriculture and other departments here on Wednesday.

Speaking on the occasion, collector instructed officials to focus on draining rainwater from fields. Many fields in the district were inundated by heavy rain triggered by Cyclone Michaung which crossed the coast on Tuesday.

Collector asked officials to create confidence among farmers that the government is behind them to support in the hour of crisis. Officials should assure farmers that their crops will be protected besides extending compensation to the crop loss and purchasing the wet crop.

The cyclone and rain withered crops in an extent of 33,724 acres, whereas crop in 24,575 acres was inundated by rainwater. As part of paddy procurement, so far 1.06 lakh metric tonnes of grains were purchased.

In off-line, 28,324 metric tonnes of paddy were procured. Officials have been directed to dry the paddy before shifting to rice mills. Collector instructed officials to avail the services of 11 dryer mills located in Kaikaluru in the paddy procurement and officials should ensure that no farmers lose the next crop.

Electricity was restored to 79 villages out of 80 villages faced disruption because of the cyclone. They have replaced 127 electric poles with new ones.

For taking up special sanitation programmes, 547 teams deputed. As many as 6,000 people were extended medical services by conducting 78 medical camps.