Hyderabad: The Telangana govt has decided to revive district irrigation advisory panels immediately. The panels—comprising the district collectors, officials from the irrigation and agriculture departments, elected representatives and other stakeholders—must meet before and during every crop season to assess reservoir and canal supplies and advise farmers on crops that can be safely cultivated in each command area.“The irrigation advisory boards should review reservoir storage, expected inflows, local rainfall, drinking-water requirements and command-area needs and then issue clear guidance to farmers”, irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy said.Addressing collectors through a video-conference along with ministers Tummala Nageswara Rao and Jupally Krishna Rao, chief secretary Sanjay Jaju and other senior officials on Friday, he asked collectors to hold advisory board meetings from Saturday wherever possible in view of the prevailing El Nino conditions that are expected to impact rainfall across the state.The minister advised farmers against cultivating water-intensive crops, including paddy during the current kharif season under projects that received inadequate inflows so far.
