Andhra reeling under water, power shortage as monsoon fails
Andhra Pradesh, reeling under the failure of monsoon, sewer water and electricity shortages, has started exploring alternatives to overcome the crisis. At a time when there was a huge electricity shortage all over the State and power cut had to be introduced in the State capital during the rainy season for the first time in several years, a high-level meeting on Thursday discussed the other ways to face the situation. The meeting attended by the Irrigation Minister Ponnal Lakshmaiah, Minister for Power Mohammed Ali Shabbir and Agriculture Minister N Raghuveera Reddy with the senior officials reviewed the water level in various major irrigation projects and availability of the electricity. "At any cost we will continue to supply-seven hour electricity to the farmers everyday," said Shabbir whose Ministry was spending Rs 15 crore additional amount everyday to purchase electricity. "We are trying to increase the purchase of electricity from Central power distribution corporation," he said. The failure of rains till now have led to depletion of water level in all major irrigation projects. The dams which were brimming with water by this time last year due to the good rains, have now dried up and the hydro-electricity generation has come to a halt. Lack of rains all over the State, with deficit of more than 60 per cent at many places, farmers have also not been able to take sowing operations.
