373 drought-affected mandals in AP

Amaravathi, October 18 : At last the AP government has responded and identified that drought conditions were prevailing in 373 mandals in the State. As per the drought manual, these can be officially declared as drought-affected.

The Chief Minister, N Chandrababu Naidu, to study the situation further, directed the district collectors to send a detailed report by the end of October after collecting full details.

According to sources, the government would submit a report with details of drought-affected mandals along with the financial help sought to the Centre.

As per the reports, Nellore district has received the lowest rainfall. Doravari Satram mandal in the district recorded the lowest rainfaill in the State, which was less than 82.7 % to normal. Chittoor also received minimum rainfall.

The drought-affected mandals district wise are like this - Srikakulam - 23; Vijayanagaram - 3; Visakhapatnam - 5; East Godavari - 26; West Godavari - 21; Krishna - 17; Guntur - 6; Prakasam - 47; Nellore - 46; Chittoor - 56; Kadapa - 34; Anantapur - 60; and Kurnool - 29.

The government started identifying mandals suffering with drought after the conclusion of kharif, which is from June 1 to September 30. The process of drought estimations, sending proposals to the Centre would be concluded by November 15.

After that only, central teams would visit the State. The farmers were worried about the investments for farming during rabi season.