Telangana took pro-active measures to tackle El Nino, says Deputy CM

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Deputy Chief Minister M. Bhatti Vikramarka on Friday stated that El Nino phenomenon had impacted Telangana in the form of deficient rainfall, reduced inflows into reservoirs, pressure on agriculture, and an increase in the electricity demand.

Anticipating the severity of the situation well in advance, the government began taking precautionary measures from April itself in coordination with various departments, he explained in the Assembly during a short discussion on the effect on El Nino and remedial measures. He stated that the rainfall deficit was 12% in June, 1% in July and a significant 38% in August.

Against the normal rainfall of 640 mm till September 18, Telangana had recorded only 543 mm, he noted. He pointed out that average rainfall figures alone do not fully reflect the severity of the situation as rainfall at the right time and at appropriate intervals was crucial for crops. One or two days of heavy rainfall cannot completely offset the impact of prolonged dry conditions that existed earlier, he explained.

About its impact on agriculture, he said the area under Kharif cultivation this year stood at 123.74 lakh acres against 139.29 lakh acres last year. Paddy cultivation had declined by around 18%, he said.

Citing the 15-minute interval data from TG-Transco, he stated that the combined load of major lift irrigation schemes was repeatedly recorded between 1,100 MW and 1,500 MW during the first half of August and reached nearly 1,600 MW on some occasions, while the load was generally between 250 MW and 450 MW during the period. On September 9, the State recorded the highest peak load of 19,453 MW.

Reduced rainfall also resulted in lower inflows into reservoirs, causing a significant decline in hydropower generation. Hydel generation fell to 422 MW this year, compared to 1,940 MW during the same period last year, the Deputy Chief Minister stated. Power purchase bids in the Day-Ahead Market of the energy exchange had increased by 61.7%, while the average energy price increased by 22%, he noted.

On wage employment, he said From April to June, an average of 12 lakh persons per day attended employment guarantee works and from July onwards, around 2 lakh persons per day were seeking employment during the lean agricultural period. During 2026–27, 7.3 crore person-days of employment were generated so far providing work to 31.5 lakh persons belonging to 21 lakh families and wages amounting to ₹2,100.53 crore were paid.

Ministers D. Seethakka, Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, Ponnam Prabhakar, D. Sridhar Babu, members Ch. Vijayaramana Rao, J. Anirudh Reddy, Ch. Vamshi Krishna, B. Murali Naik, Adi Srinivas, B. Ilaiah and T. Rammohan Reddy (all Congress), A. Maheshwar Reddy, Payal Shankar, P. Harish Babu and P. Rakesh Reddy (all BJP), Kausar Mohiuddin (AIMIM) and K. Sambasiva Rao (CPI) participated in the discussion.

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