Hyderabad: The Chief Minister Mr. N Kiran Kumar Reddy today sought liberal assistance from the Government of India towards drought relief in Andhra Pradesh. The Chief Minister told the Central Team that the State would be sending a revised request for central assistance as per revised norms amounting to Rs.3,006 crs. He was interacting with the Inter Ministerial Central Team that called on him after touring the affected districts today at Secretariat. Minister for Revenue, Mr. N Raghuveera Reddy, Chief Secretary, Mr. Pankaj Dwivedi, Commissioner, Disaster Management, Mr. Radha, Commissioner, Agriculture, Ms. Usha Rani, Principal Secretary to CM, Mr Binoy Kumar, Secretary to CM, Mr. K.S.Jawahar Reddy, Special Secretary to CM, S S Rawat, Addl. Secretary to CM, Mr Sreedhar and other officials were present.

The Inter Ministerial Central Team consisted of nine members in two teams. Mr Pravesh Sharma, MD, SFAC, GoI was the team leader. Other members of the team were Mr. Mukesh Sharma, Assistant Director, Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance; Mr. A.Nanda Kumar, Director (SS), Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI; Mr. Dinesh Chand, Addl. Advisor (WQ) Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation; Ms. Nita Kejrewal, Director (Aajeevika), Ministry of Rural Development; Mr. M. Joseph Eugene Raj, Research Officer (PAMD), Planning Commission; Dr. (Ms) M.S.Tara, Regional Director, NIPCCD, Ministry of Women & Child Development and Mr.A.Paramesham, Superintending Engineer, Krishna & Godavari Basin Organisation, CWC. The Central Team lauded and acclaimed the well coordinated approach of the State Government in the drought relief measures. The team leader said after their tour of all the drought-affected districts, they have now a much clearer understanding of the situation and the need at the ground level and what the State has done so far. He said the State Government have done a good job at the field level with clear understanding between the departments concerned and the public representatives.

The team said a very comprehensive assessment of the crop damage has been done and there are no complaints from any farmer that he is left out. They said they are extremely gratified to see that foodgrain prices seem to be very stable in spite of the drought and other natural calamities. This, they said, is because of the well-managed PDS system that is in vogue in the State whereby poor and low income people are getting rice at Re.1 per kg. "Even when we went to the Mandis, we found the prices there are not fluctuating, even open market prices seems to be stable", they said. The team said "your credit system is very good. Farmers are getting continuous loans at cheaper interest. It is working creditably well". The team also lauded the performance of SHGs. "As far as implementation of NREGA is concerned, Andhra Pradesh is a model State. You have shown how IT can be used in implementing the scheme. Other States should come and see the implementation of the programme here". The team also praised social welfare programmes of the State Government that are helping the rural community at large. However the team cautioned that drinking water will be a problem particularly in the coming summer. Fodder and cattle camps will also be areas of concern, they said.

The Revenue Minister said that a fool-proof online transfer of cash is in vogue in the State as far as the relief measures are concerned. He cited the instance of Anantapur district where Rs.245 crs of input subsidy was transferred online to the accounts of 4.60 lakh farmers on a pilot basis. The Chief Minister said that few of the districts in the State are suffering from cyclone and floods on one side and drought on other side. He sought long term assistance from the Government of India as a permanent measure to meet the natural calamities like massive irrigation projects. He also said that the State Government sought Rs.120/- as bonus towards MSP for foodgrains. The Chief Minister wanted the drought relief from Government of India at the earliest possible. Once the Central assistance is received, the State will add its share and distribute it to the affected farmers. The Chief Minister said relief also will be sought for fishermen and weavers affected by the drought in the revised request to the Government of India. A detailed Drought Memorandum has been submitted to Government of India on 13.01.2012, wherein the State has requested for Central Assistance from National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) amounting to Rs.2584.42 crs. In Kharif 2011, due to erratic, uneven & non-receipt of sufficient rainfall during South-West Monsoon, agriculture operations were badly affected. Due to deficiency of rainfall (-38%) in the month of June, sowing of rainfed crops was delayed by nearly 15 to 30 days.

Further crop growth was also affected due to insufficient rainfall in the month of September (-43%) leading to low yields in many parts of the State, affecting several rainfed crops like Cotton, Groundnut, Jowar, Maize, etc. During North-East Monsoon also (09.10.2011 to 26.12.2011), the State has received 105.1 mm of rainfall as against the normal rainfall of 223.3 mm with a deficit of -53%. In view of such adverse seasonal conditions, 876 Mandals (covering 22 out of 23 Districts) have been declared as drought affected by the Government. As per the joint enumeration reports of Agriculture and Revenue Departments, as against sown area of 77.86 lakh ha. during Kharif 2011, a total area of 34.24 Lakh ha has been damaged (29.74 Lakh ha SF/MF + 4.40 Lakh ha Other farmers ) wherein the yield loss is >50%, compared to the normal yield. Crop-wise area damages where the yield loss is > 50% of normal yield and number of farmers affected is as follows:- 51.53 lakh farmers were affected in 876 Drought Affected Mandals, which includes 48.53 lakh Small/Marginal farmers out of a total of 100.56 lakh SF/MF in the State. The total production loss of agriculture crops is estimated as 3.01 Million tonnes valued at Rs.5746.78 Crores.

In recent years (2009-10 and 2010-11), multiple natural disasters adversely affected the State’s economy and its people. During the calendar years 2009 and 2010, the State has been affected by 6 natural calamities, viz., Drought (Kharif 2009), Floods (Sept-Oct-2009), Laila Cyclone (May 2010) Heavy Rains (South-West Monsoon 2010), Jal Cyclone (October-November-2010), and Depression (December, 2010). Balance in the SDRF (State Disaster Response Fund) is negative at (-) 666.99 Crores as at the end of Jan 2012. Considering that the Scale of Relief fixed by Govt. of India (GOI) for many crops does not cover even the cost of cultivation, Govt. of AP (GoAP) has been extending enhanced relief in the form of input subsidy to various Agriculture & Horticulture crops over and above the Scale of Relief prescribed by GOI since 2004-05 onwards till date in order to help the farmers whose crops were damaged due to multiple disasters.