CM YS Jagan Reviews Dry Spell, Contingency Plans

Amaravati: Chief Miniter YS Jagan Mohan Reddy directed the officials to focus on e-cropping registrations while maintaining enough stocks of cattle fodder in view of the prolonged dry spell in the State.

During a review meeting held on the dry spell and the contingency plans to be implemented, at the Camp Office here on Friday, the Chief Minister said e-crop data is very important for extending financial support to the farmers and directed them to begin the registrations and collect cattle data from all village secretariats to make preparations to keep enough stocks of fodder. 

He also directed them to arrange meetings of farmers’ advisory councils immediately under the aegis of District Collectors to discuss contingency plans and create awareness among farmers on alternate crops in view of the dry spell.

He directed the officials to introduce the APMSP Bill in the next assembly elections to ensure that the farmers get MSP for their produce and RBKs play key role.

Officials told him while they are ready to distribute 7005 metric tons of cattle fodder seeds, 74,023 metric tons of TMR is also ready.
Short rainfall

Officials informed him that the State had experienced a reduced rainfall of 314.6 mm as against the usual 419.6 mm between June and August making it short by 25 per cent.

Konaseema, Kakinada, SPS Nellore, West Godavari, NTR, Tirupati, Palnadu, Prakasam, Anantapuram, Sri Satya Sai, Annamayys, YSR, Kurnool and Nandyala districts have experienced lesser rainfall and in some of these districts, the adverse effect of short rainfall would be less as they have other irrigation sources.

Out of the total capacity of 1174.58 TMC capacity of all major, medium and minor reservoirs in the State, their present capacity stood at 507.88 TMCs, they said, 

Enough water has been released in advance to meet irrigational needs of Krishna delta and presently, the needs of Godavari delta are being met.
While there is no scarcity of water to meet irrigation needs under Vamsadhara and Totapally reservoirs, the requirements are almost being met under the ayacuts of Velugodu, Gandikota, Chitravati, Brahma Sagar, Mailavaram and Gorukallu reservoirs.

Officials told him that problems are being faced in supplying water to the ayacuts of KC Canal and the Right Canal of Nagarjuna Sagar project while there are enough stocks of water in Somasila and Kandaleru reservoirs to meet the needs of irrigation in Nellore district as crops are being cultivated rather late there.  Steps are being taken to fill Eleru reservoir, they said.
Power generation 

Officials said that the demand for electricity went up by 18 per cent from the power grid compared to last year due to prolonged dry spell and every day 44.25 million units are being purchased daily spending an amount of Rs. 2935 crore between March and August, they said, adding that there is a heavy demand of 231 Giga Wats across the nation. 

The Chief Minister observed despite the adverse power situation across the nation, Government has spent Rs. 501crore, Rs. 493crore, Rs. 430crore, 346.28crore, Rs.197.57crore and Rs.966.09crore in March, April, May, June, July and August respectively paying a higher price of Rs.7.52 per unit to maintain enough power supply to the people avoiding inconvenience. 

Officials said that 3.3 lakh new connections were given to farmers in the last 50 months while the wind and thermal power generation has dropped this year considerably due to adverse weather conditions and lack of quality coal respectively. 

Agriculture and Marketing Minister K. Govardhna Reddy, Water Resources Minister A. Rambabu, Animal Husbandry Minister Dr S. Appala Raju, AP Agricultural Mission Vice-Chairman MVS Nagi Reddy, CS Dr KS Jawahar Reddy, Special Chief Secretaries K. Vijayanand  (Energy), Goplakrishna Dwivedi (Agriculture), Water Resources Principal Secretary Sasibhushan Kumar,  Agriculture Special Commissioner Ch. Hari Kiran, Horticultural Commissioner Dr SS Sridhar,  AP Seeds Development Corporation VC & MD Dr G. Sekhar Babu,  Animal Husbandry Director Dr Amarendra Kumar, ANGRAU Director of Research Dr L Prasanti,  Engineer-in-Chief of Water Resources Narayana Reddy and other senior officials were present.