Moved by the severe drought situation in the western parts of Prakasam district, a Central team, headed by Union Agriculture Joint Secretary Amitabh Gautam, on Thursday promised to recommend liberal assistance to mitigate the sufferings of the people.
“We will submit a comprehensive report to the Centre presenting a factual account of the drought situation,” said the team leader after touring parts of the worst-affected villages in Yerragondapalem Assembly constituency.
The Centre had released ₹343 crore for drought relief to the farmers who had lost their crops sown during the kharif season based on the recommendations of another Central team that visited in January, he said.
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The compensation due to each farmer would be credited to his/her bank account shortly. He exhorted farmers to install micro irrigation systems to grow crops with every drop of water.
Pouring out their woes, a group of farmers who had lost rain-fed red gram crops, said all bore-wells had dried up. They were unable to see water in the bore-wells even after going to a depth 700-800 ft, they added.
Yerragondapalem MLA P. David Raju pressed for providing Krishna water from Nagarjunasagar and for holding cattle camps in the drought-hit villages.
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The Mutukula drinking water project meant for 44 villages was unable to serve people even in 10 villages due to pipeline leakage at several places, he complained.