Karimnagar: Agriculture minister and Karimnagar district in-charge minister Tummala Nageswara Rao on Sunday directed the government machinery to work in mission mode to minimise the impact of El Niño-induced rainfall deficit and safeguard farmers and the public.

Chairing a review meeting at the Collectorate along with ministers D. Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabhakar and Adluri Laxman Kumar, Tummala said elected representatives and officials, from ward members to MPs and from panchayat secretaries to district collectors, should work in close coordination to tackle the emerging situation.

Collectors, police commissioners, superintendents of police and officials from various departments in the erstwhile Karimnagar district attended the meeting.

Tummala said Telangana was likely to face the adverse impact of El Nino along with Maharashtra and Karnataka, making advance planning and precautionary measures essential.

He instructed officials to create awareness among farmers and encourage them to cultivate crops that require less water. Depending on local conditions, farmers should be advised to shift to oil palm, red gram, sesame, groundnut, pulses, millets and horticultural crops.

The minister said farmers should also be informed about groundwater levels, the availability of irrigation water, storage in reservoirs and the likely rainfall deficit. The information should be disseminated through grama sabhas, Rythu Vedikas and Rythu Nestham programmes.

Reviewing drinking water preparedness, Tummala directed officials to prepare advance contingency plans to prevent water scarcity and create awareness on water conservation.

He asked officials from the agriculture, irrigation, groundwater and electricity departments, along with agricultural scientists, to review the situation regularly and provide timely inputs to district collectors.

Stating that water levels in irrigation projects were critically low and groundwater levels were declining, the minister said people should be made aware of the status of major, medium and minor irrigation systems.

He said the state government had already released `9,000 crore under the Rythu Bharosa scheme to support farmers and stressed that coordinated efforts by public representatives and officials would help mitigate the impact of any drought-like situation.

Later, speaking to reporters, Tummala said groundwater levels had fallen to depths of 10 to 12 metres in several areas. He warned that El Niño was likely to affect all sectors and reiterated that timely precautionary measures were the only way to minimise its impact.