Principal Secretary of Youth Welfare and Sports Development, Rajendra Kumar who is also the Monitoring Officer of Tirunelveli appealed to officials to take into account the situation of farmers, who have been facing water scarcity due to lack of adequate rainfall.
At a review meeting held here on Sunday, he asked the officials to guide the farmers to go in for cultivation of other suitable crops as alternative to paddy cultivation in order to save water.
The Agriculture Department staff could suggest the farmers to take up millet cultivation, he added.
During this North-East monsoon season, Tirunelveli district has been facing 42.5 percent deficit rainfall. Due to inadequate rainfall recorded during this season, standing crops had withered and water level in dams have decreased.
Hence, the farmers need to be guided on insuring their crops under the Prime Minister’s new insurance scheme, the Principal Secretary said.
Since the water level in dams was also poor, priority should be accorded to the drinking water needs of people.
With the current level of water storage, there would be no problem for drinking water until February, he said.
If the district received sufficient rain during this monsoon season, the situation during summer months could be managed.
Collector M. Karunakaran, Tenkasi Revenue Divisional Officer, Venkatesh, Project Director, Palani, District Rural Development Agency, Assistant Director of Panchayats, Dhandapani, Chief Educational Officer, Swaminathan, Joint Director of Agriculture, Kanagaraj, Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Venkatesh, Deputy Director of Health Services, Ram Ganesh, Tirunelveli, Deputy Director of Health, Aruna, Sankarankovil and others attended.
There would be no drinking water problem until February, says Monitoring Officer
