Kisan Congress seeks drought declaration for 624 mandals in Andhra Pradesh

Kakinada, Oct 4 (TNT): Andhra Pradesh State Kisan Congress Chairman Kamana Prabhakar Rao on Sunday demanded that the state government declare 624 of the 688 mandals in the state as drought-affected, stating that the prevailing situation was severe.

Addressing a press conference here, Prabhakar Rao said the government had declared only 283 mandals as severely drought-affected and 105 mandals as moderately drought-affected, which, he alleged, did not reflect the ground situation.

He said agricultural statistics indicated that nearly 10 lakh acres had remained uncultivated as of September 30, while about 90 per cent of the cultivable area had been affected by drought.

He said paddy cultivation had been particularly affected in Rayalaseema and North Andhra, with nearly half of the transplanted crop drying up.

Agricultural labourers were migrating to other areas in search of employment, while cattle were facing a shortage of water and fodder, he added.

The Kisan Congress chairman demanded that drought-affected villages be identified by treating each village as a unit and that relief measures be taken up without further delay.

He also sought waiver of existing loans of tenant farmers and sanction of fresh loans to enable them to take up cultivation, besides extending input subsidies and supplying short-duration seed varieties.

Prabhakar Rao urged the government to direct Agriculture and Revenue officials to tour drought-affected mandals and submit detailed reports so that relief measures could be taken up on a war footing.

He also demanded that fodder be supplied to villages in Rayalaseema and North Andhra to protect cattle affected by the drought.

TNT TMR