Chikkaballapur
A team headed by Central Water Commission Director V Ashok Kumar visited farmers’ lands in different parts of the district on Friday to study and check the drought situation caused by severe lack of rain in the district. Team members Mahal Nobis,  National Crop Forecasting Center, Deputy Director Kiran Chaudhary and Under Secretary,  Food and Public Distribution Department Sangeet Kumar participated in the inspection.
First, the team observed a photo exhibition depicting the drought situation organised in the Deputy Commissioner’s office hall of the district administration building. The district administration made an effort to draw the team’s attention to the drought situation in the district by displaying the pictures of crop damage due to lack of rain in different periods and the information collected through photographs.
Later, in a meeting held in the Deputy Commissioner’s conference hall, information was  along with statistics from the officials of Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry and Silk Departments.
Javeeda Naseema Khanam, Joint Director of Agriculture Department said in the meeting that the state government has declared 6 taluks of the district as severe drought affected taluks. Â Â Out of the total sown area of 1,09,025 hectares, 75,208.20 hectares of agricultural crops were damaged. She informed that there is an estimated loss of Rs 463.49 crore in the district due to this.
During the field visit Commissioner of Watershed Development Department HC Girish, Deputy Commissioner PN Ravindra, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Prakash GT Nittali, Joint Director of Agriculture of Watershed Development Department Jayaswami, Deputy Collector Dr N Tippeswamy and officials, staff of various departments at district and taluk level were present.
