Standing crops in 42,943 acres were affected owing to acute drought and failure of monsoon. The State and Central Governments will make certain announcements about relief measures on January 11 or 12, said Minister for Forests C. Seenivasan. Talking to press persons after inspecting withered crops in the district here on Saturday, he said that drought was acute and crop damage very high. Already, the State had witnessed flood damage owing to a recent cyclone which devastated the northern districts. All schemes executed by the late Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, would continue. Equal importance was being given to protect wild life also, he pointed out. While presiding over the review meeting, Higher Education Secretary A. Karthik said 113 out of 130 village panchayats were affected in the district. The worst-affected were the horticulture and rainfed crops. The officials should visit rest of the villages and submit their full report within a day or two, he advised. Collector N. Venkatachalam said that paddy crop was raised in 2,761 acres out of total 14,707 acres of which 261 acres were affected. With no water for irrigation, hundreds of paddy growers did not raise the second crop and had left the land barren. A total of 20,271 acres of major rainfed crops including 8,063 acres of maize, 3,369 acres of sorghum, 1,238 of red gram (Toor), 4,014 acres of black gram 1,384 acres of green gram, 1,860 acres of horse gram and 7,000 acres of oil seeds and other crops, he added. Andipatti MLA Thangathamizh Selvan appealed to construct a dam across the Vaigai river and store the river water in 30 tanks to irrigate the dry crops in grey area of Andipatti block. Such a measure would improve the groundwater table also, he added. The Minister assured him to take the project to the notice of the government. Farmers at Veppampatti showed the damaged banana crops and briefed about the damage to standing crops. They said that loss per acre was around Rs.70,000. They appealed to the government to give compensation for crop loss quickly. With no livelihood activities, farm labourers had been struggling for survival, they added. The team had inspected S.S. Puram, Venkatachalampuram in Andipatti block, Silamalai Meenakshipuram and Boodhipuram in Bodi block, Sindhalaserry and Bomminmaickanpatti and Ednapuli in Periyakulam block. Source - http://www.thehindu.com