Dried up tanks, fields and worried faces greeted the three-member central team which inspected the drought hit areas in the four mandals in the eastern part of Chittoor district on Thursday. The team led by Vandal Singal (Central Electricity Authority), accompanied by district officials began its two day visit with Kayam village in Vadamalapet mandal where they saw the fields’ left unsown remaining barren and the dried up tank revealing the severity of the dry spell hitting the district consecutively for two years. The central team after inspecting the NREGS works had an interaction with farmers on the impact of drought loss to agriculture and the difficulty they were facing to get drinking water and feed their cattle.In M Puram, the team visited the mango garden affected in the drought in the same mandal followed by the visit to Tamburu in Narayanavanam mandal where they inspected the dried up tank, withered sugarcane crop at Yelakaturu in Nindra mandal. After brief halt in Nagari where they held discussion with local officials, farmers and others, the team winded its inspection at Nagarajakuppam in Nagari mandal. Everywhere, the farmers narrated their sufferings and explained about the intensity of the drought which they said this time has not spared the eastern part of the district which has not faced such severe situation in the recent years. Earlier, at Tirupati, the team studied the drought situation in the photo exhibition organised by the district administration on the drought condition and also the drought mitigation measures including the supply of concentrate feed, silage and fodder seed supply to farmers to overcome fodder shortage, supply of drinking water in the problem village and promotion of drought resistant crops like Apple Ber, growing short term vegetables, flower crop like Marigold, green manure and crop varieties as intercrop in mango orchards through the Horticulture department. The team also held discussion with officials of various departments on the drought situation and the relief measures taken up to mitigate the sufferings of the people.District Collector PS Pradyumna in his presentation on the drought condition said the district has been experiencing drought for the past 8 years except 2010-11 and 2015-16. This year 2016-17, district received 52 percent less rain fall intensifying the drought condition, he said urging the central team to recommend liberal financial support as the entire district is hit by severe drought.  As many as 1,080 habitations were identified as problematic, he said informing that water is transported daily to 833 habitations and supplying drinking water through tie-up arrangement in another 247 habitations. He took the occasion to explain how Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who is from the district striving to make the district drought free with the completion of Handri-Niva and Galeru-Nagari projects. Two other members of central team RB Koul (Finance department) and Vijay Thakre and district officials were also present. Source - http://www.thehansindia.com