Minister in charge of Mysuru district H.C. Mahadevappa on Monday said drinking water has to be given top priority amidst drought and added that water from various sources should be used only to supply to villages for drinking.
The Minister asked the officials to prepare a list of villages that are facing water scarcity and accordingly an action plan has to be prepared by the district and taluk administrations for handling the drought situation.
At a meeting to review the drought situation, at the Zilla Panchayat here, Dr. Mahadevappa suggested avoiding drilling new borewells as an alternative measure for supplying water. Instead, the existing borewells can be revived, installing pumps for drawing water to supply to the needy. “Water should not be wasted at all. The officers can take over the borewells in private ownership if there was a need to ensure drinking water to the people in view of drought,” the Minister told the meeting.
Deputy Commissioner K.V. Rajendra said pumpsets installed on the river banks for drawing water to agriculture fields had been removed.
Awareness was being spread across for not using drinking water for agriculture reasons because of drought and the crisis some villages had been facing. If necessary water will be sourced from Harangi and Hemavathi reservoirs.
Rural Water Supply Department’s Executive Engineer Ranjith said two villages were facing drinking water crisis and water was being supplied to those villages from private borewells. In the coming days, 134 villages may face water crisis and 36 among them villages had been identified for supply on a daily basis, he told the meeting.
Officials from the department of animal husbandry said there was no fodder crisis in Mysuru district and the fodder stocks can last for 34 weeks.
As many as 68,000 fodder kits had been supplied to farmers for cultivating fodder in their fields to ensure sufficient stocks for their livestocks until the onset of monsoon.
The officials said there was no need for opening the ‘Goshala’ (cow shelter – to look after the livestock over drought) to take care of the livestock and added that the inter-State transportation of fodder had been banned to ensure availability for the local livestock.
Agriculture Department officials told the meeting that 88,620 farmers have received drought relief of ₹2,000 from the government. In total, ₹15.83 crore had been credited into the bank accounts of farmers.
Zilla Panchayat CEO K.M. Gayathri and other senior officials were present.
