Officials directed to take steps to tackle water scarcity

West Godavari District Collector Sumit Kumar has directed the officials to take steps to tackle the water scarcity during the ensuing summer. He also asked them to lay special focus on the areas where farmers are facing acute water scarcity to irrigate their fields.
The District Agriculture Advisory Board meeting was held here presided over by Board chairman Kaigala Satyanarayana on Tuesday. Collector Sumit Kumar, who participated as the chief guest in the meeting said that all measures should be taken in advance to prevent irrigation water shortage for Rabi crop cultivation in the suburban areas in the district.
He said weeds spread on the canals inhibiting the free flow of water.  Even if sufficient water is released some tail-end fields are not getting water, he told them.
The Collector instructed the officials to identify the canals in which weeds spread and take steps to remove them. He also asked them to take steps to form village committees immediately comprising the VRO, Laskar, police and agriculture department staff and mandal committee with Tahsildar, Irrigation, SSI and agriculture department officials.
“In addition to monitoring the canals for one hour every day, the respective teams should meet at least five farmers to find out their problems and resolve them,” the Collector told them. He advised the irrigation officials to identify the areas where there are problems with irrigation and submit estimates immediately.
Collector Sumit Kumar ordered the officials to take steps to ensure that there would be no scarcity of fertilizers in the district.
He said that 68,796 farmers had to be paid Rs 926.67 crore regarding the purchase of their paddy produce of kharif season of which 66,991 farmers have been disbursed Rs 910.43 crore. As many as 1,305 farmers have to be disbursed Rs 16.24 crore for their paddy produce, the Collector stated. Steps are being taken to rectify the EKEY technical problems of the farmers and the money would be credited into the bank accounts during the week, he said.
He instructed the officials to ensure that irrigation water shortage would not affect even an acre in the district.
Agriculture board chairman Kaigala Srinivasa Rao appealed to disburse money to the farmers regarding paddy purchase.  District agriculture officer Z Venkateswar Rao, Irrigation EE M Dakshina Murthy, Civil Supply Manager T Shivarama Prasad district animal husbandry officer Dr.K Murali Krishna and Lead bank manager A Nagendra Prasad were among those who were present.