ALL EARS: District Collector D. Kadmiel (centre), Joint Collector Anita Rajendra (to his right) and other officials participating in a video conference in Anantapur on Wednesday.

ANANTAPUR: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has directed the Agriculture Department in the district to be prepared with all necessary statistics on the crops damaged due to scanty rainfall this season.

Addressing the district collectors on drought, agriculture, Indiramma, NREGS and other schemes through video conference from Hyderabad on Wednesday, he wanted the officials to keep seed of alternative crops ready.

Giving a detailed picture of the drought situation in the district, Collector D. Kadmiel stated that against 338 mm of normal rainfall so far the actual was just 145 mm.

Even the rain recorded on September 12 in 45 mandals was more than 10 mm only in 30 mandals.

On cultivation of crops in the current kharif season the Collector stated that sowings were done only in 6.39 lakh hectares against the normal coverage of 8.47 lakh hectares and the crop in about 4 lakh hectares was already damaged due to scanty rainfall.

He also explained that alternative seed like sorghum and horsegram for red soils and sunflower, sorghum, bengalgram, greengram and castor for black soils were already kept ready.

To overcome the possible fodder shortage, fodder seed sufficient for 12,550 acres was already supplied to farmers with 75 per cent subsidy, the Collector said.

Job cards

Asked about the implementation of NREGS the Collector explained to the Chief Minister that about 4.72 lakh job cards were issued under the scheme and 1,68,014 wage seekers (1,05,455 households) were already availing the scheme.

The Collector also stated that social audit on the scheme was conducted in 600 villages by representatives of 31 NGOs recently. When the Chief Minister sought to learn about the irregularities found, Principal Secretary of Rural Development K. Raju intervened and said the scheme was being implemented properly in all but seven villages.

Further, he stated that no discrepancies were found regarding the amount of work done and the wages paid for the work and there was no involvement of contractors and machinery.

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