The Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to seek around Rs. 10,000 crore from the Centre to tackle the drought relief measures in the State.
The Chief Minister, K Rosaiah, who reviewed the drought memorandum (which is under preparation) with the Revenue Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao and other officials, decided to submit it to the Centre shortly.
The State government has already declared 981 revenue mandals as drought-affected in 22 districts of the state as majority of the drought-declared mandals have received a deficit of 32 per cent rainfall, according to an official release from the Chief Minister’s officer here this evening.
Mr. Rosaiah directed the officials to immediately attend to the observations made by the Special Officers who are already appointed to different districts.
The Chief Minister directed the district collectors to publish the list of areas and mandals as drought-affected in the District Gazette and asked them to constitute teams to assess the damages to agricultural/horticultural crops and work out the amount required to be provided as input subsidy.
He wanted District Level Bankers Committee Meeting to be convened for rescheduling of existing crop loans and issue of fresh loans.
The Chief Minister wanted fodder seed to be supplied and fodder cultivation to be encouraged through convergence of NREGS funds. Mr. Rosaiah wanted works to be identified and taken up under NREGS programme. He asked the officials to hold regular review meetings with district officials concerned and monitor the progress on implementation of relief activities.
The Chief Minister was informed that a Call Centre is functioning, where drought grievances are being registered and sent to the district officials concerned.
The Chief Minister asked the district collectors to bring immediate action points to the notice of Special Officers who in turn would furnish a report to the Government.
The Chief Minister said there will no shortage of funds from the government side as far as drought relief works are concerned. He said sufficient funds are already available with the district collectors as far as drinking water supply is concerned.
