State PWD Minister Rajesh Munat has directed the Agriculture Department officials to submit a report on the condition of Kharif crops in the district within a week.
He was chairing a meeting called to discuss low rainfall situation across the district here on Wednesday.
The Minister asked the officials to form a joint committee comprising SDM, Tehsil members, Janpad CEO and Agriculture officers to survey the condition of rice, kharif and other crops within the villages of a Tehsil.
Munat would be reviewing the data including the number of crops damaged after a fortnight.
Besides the orders, he directed the officers of Zila Panchayat, PHE, Water Resources, Wildlife and Animal Husbandry departments to draft a micro-level planning.
Pointing on the preventive measures for farmers to be adopted for tackling disasters, he asked the officers to spread awareness among farmers through gram sabhas and send the photographs of the programmes to the respective district administration with the help of Whatsapp or other mediums.
Munat stressed on providing the facilities under National Crop Insurance Plan to the beneficiaries.
He said it is not mandatory for the farmers to purchase organic fertilisers.
Munat instructed the Water Resources Department officials to ensure the drinking water in the reservoirs through irrigation.
An Engineer of the Department informed in the meeting that more than 70 percent water is available only at Mongra, Sukhanala and Ghumaria reservoirs.
Munat went through the documents of non functioning transformers in the rural areas and instructed the Energy Department officials to solve the low voltage problems immediately.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Zila Panchayat was asked to provide employment opportunities for the people hailing from drought affected villages.
Munat also went through the issues of ground water depletion and health centric matters of several villages.
It may be recalled that Chhattisgarh is among nine other states having lesser water storage in its key reservoirs compared to last year as on August 27, 2015, according to the latest data released by the Union Ministry of Water Resources.
The states of Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana (Two combined project in both states) Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the other states which are having lesser storage than last year as on August 27, 2015.
States having better storage than last year for corresponding period are Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tripura, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh. States having equal storage than last year for corresponding period is Andhra Pradesh.
The Central region includes States of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. There are 12 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total storage capacity of 42.30 BCM. The total storage available in these reservoirs is 31.46 BCM which is 74% of total storage capacity of these reservoirs.
The storage during corresponding period of last year was 73% and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 58% of live storage capacity of these reservoirs.
The Water storage available in 91 important reservoirs of the country as on August 27, 2015 was 91.84 BCM which is 58% of total storage capacity of these reservoirs. This storage is 87% of the storage of corresponding period of last year and 88% of storage of average of last ten years.
The present storage position during current year is less than the storage position of last year and is also less than the storage of average of last ten years.
The total storage capacity of these 91 reservoirs is 157.799 BCM which is about 62% of the total storage capacity of 253.388 BCM which is estimated to have been created in the country.
On July 6 this year, the Chhattisgarh government in an official press release had informed that the State’s reservoirs have filled up to an average level of 50%.