Central team visits Nandyal to assess drought conditions

Kurnool: An inter-ministerial team from the Centre visited various mandals in Nandyal on Thursday to assess the drought conditions. The team interacted with farmers at Koilakuntla and Dornipadu mandals. A photo exhibition of the situation was arranged for the team in Nandyal by the district administration.

Members of the inter-ministerial team included director of the department of expenditure Chinmay Pundlikrao Gotmare, deputy adviser to the drinking water and sanitation department Ashish Pandey and secretary to the central rural development department Aravinda Kumar Soni.

District collector K. Srinivasulu briefed the central team, explaining that the government had declared 13 mandals as drought-affected for Rabi 2023-24. Some 58,011 farmers, who cultivated crops such as groundnut, sugarcane, sorghum, tobacco and maize, suffered severe losses.

From October to May, a deficit of 21.14 per cent in rainfall was recorded.

Regarding groundwater levels, the collector said it was 6.84 metres deep in May 2023, 7.01 metres by November and 11.42 metres by May 2024. Due to the depletion of underground tables, water has been transported through water tankers.

Due to severe drought conditions in Rabi 2023-24, proposals for an input subsidy of Rs 57.30 crore had been sent for 59,207 hectares, benefiting 58,011 farmers in the district, as per NDRF norms.

The collector said that the proposals for the input subsidy was sent as per NDRF norms.

Members stated that they will assess the drought situation for Rabi 2023-24 and submit a field-level report to the central government.

Joint collector Rahul Reddy, district agriculture officer Muralikrishna, horticulture officer Nagaraju, superintendent of RWS Manohar, deputy director of groundwater department Raghuram, DRO Mallikarjuna Reddy, irrigation SE Venkata Ramanaiah, DWMA project director Ramachandra and others were present.