Dattareyya demands central team to assess Telangana drought

Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreyya on Friday requested the Centre to send a Central Team to assess the drought situation in Telangana and provide expeditious relief to the farmers.

Participating in the debate in Lok Sabha on Friday, Dattatreyya also requested for allocation of additional 1000 MW unallocated power to Telangana to rescue the farming sector. “The farmers should be given additional loans with low interest rates and seeds to cultivate alternative crops during this Khariff season. Along with these temporary measures, the Government of India should also take permanent measures for the benefit of the agriculture sector as Telangana is a drought prone State,” he said. He also demanded that Pranahita Chevella Irrigation project be declared as National Project immediately.

Dattatreyya drew the attention of the Centre on deficit rainfall in Telangana. Quoting the statistics of the Meteorological Department, he said the rainfall in Telangana so far was as low as 146.77 mm compared to 487 mm recorded during the corresponding period. He said Nizamabad and Nalgonda districts were worst affected with deficit rainfall of 36 per cent than normal. Of 464 mandals, as many as 426 mandals got either scanty or deficient rainfall.

“With the failure of monsoon, the cultivation of crops has come down by an area of 10 lakhs hectares. The food grains crop and pulses crop cultivation areas have decreased by 29% and 41% respectively in our State. And the groundnut crop is worst affected with a reduction of 89% of the cultivating area when compared to previous year’s cultivated area,” he said.

Due to scarcity of water, paddy is being grown in just 10 lakh hectares although the Telangana Government had set a target of production of 1.05 crore tonnes during this Khariff season. He said the farmers were forced to depend on 23 lakh borewells due to failure of monsoon. However, the shortage of power was affecting the borewells in the Telangana.

Dattatreyya also expressed concern over non-implementation of promise of waiving off of agricultural loans. He claimed that this year 24 farmers have committed suicide due to the debt trap.