Naval Kishore Ram, Collector of Beed, spoke to Business Line on how the situation is near catastrophic, and how he is dealing with it.

How severe is the situation in Beed?

Go to any village, it will show a gloomy picture. Water pressure is low. Things are not looking good as the situation is near catastrophic. We have two dams, Manjra and Majalgaon. Water storage of Manjra dam is zero.

How are you helping the villages?

Usually we have an action plan for water for three quarters. This year we have already planned for four quarters assuming that there will be deficient rain between June and September.

We are talking to people’s representatives at the Panchayat/block level and have a plan with regard to borewells / tankers, besides extensive surveys of people’s requirement. About 750 tankers are supplying water to 1,024 villages and in total it is 1,084 hamlets/wards and villages. About 40-45 per cent will be getting water through tankers. We have a 24X7 war room manned by three senior officers and a call centre manned by naib tehsildars , just for water requirements. We are doing GPS tracking of tankers for optimal utilisation.

What about cattle farmers?

Despite all odds and problems we are trying to solve the issues. We are running cattle camps near villages to provide fodder.

There are 8.5 lakh milch cattle and we have already done over 260 cattle camps for them. We have covered 2.6 lakh animals in these camps. These camps provide 15 kg fodder plus minerals each day.

What is the status of the ongoing irrigation projects?

The Kundalika project is work in progress.

Compartment bunding for cultivable area on 25,000 hectares, besides deep continuous contour trenches to deepen (10,000 hectares) using the ridge-to-valley concept is being done. This recharges the valley and ridge goes green. Old drainages are treated and cement bunds made. Kolhapur type bunds (KT weirs) and percolation tanks are being restored at a cost of between ₹50,000 and ₹2.5 lakh. The task is to conserve water and this is being done under the Jalyukt Shivar. Initially it is being done in 271 villages and in the second stage 242 villages will be covered. The target is to cover the whole district in the next five years.

We received crop insurance for kharif crops for ₹375 crore as sum assured for which we had paid a premium of ₹32 crore. Now farmers are insuring for rabi as well.

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