The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation is funding a pilot project to enable the state’s farmers to reverse the environmental degradation and rural poverty in the state by applying scientific methods to groundwater management.

Baseline studies jointly conducted by the FAO, Centre and state government have identified seven districts in Andhra Pradesh to effectively implement the best practices in sustainable cropping patterns to combat climate change.

Almost 10 per cent of villages in the state have been freshly earmarked to receive notifications under the Andhra Pradesh Water, Land and Trees Act, 2002.

The villages have been identified by the groundwater department here that has asked the state government to strictly check deep-bore drilling in about 2,500 villages that are to be notified in a fresh move this year.

Ground water levels are depleting fast in the State. Latest studies by the ground water department reveal that all districts in the state have witnessed a critical fall in the water table. Dr K. Venugopal, joint director, ground water department told Deccan Chronicle that of all the 23 districts covered by the study from November 2010 to November 2011, the depth of ground water had dropped the most in Prakasam district. Here the ground water level has dropped by 5.32 metres below the earlier levels, followed by a drop of 5.28 metres in Ranga Reddy district.

Twelve thousand trees will be felled to make way for the three proposed radial roads — Nagole-Gouralli, Tarnaka-Keesara Jeedi-metla-Dundigal — connecting to the high speed corridor Outer Ring Road and to construct a double trumpet bridge at Nagaram near Ghatkesar.

Ongole, Dec. 22: Chirala Congress MLA Amanchi Krishnamohan here on Wednesday demanded the cancellation of the ultra mega power pro-ject at Nayunipalli in Vetapalem mandal of the distr-ict. Referring to the notification to acquire lands, he demanded its revocation as 50,000 persons would be displaced due to the project.

Hyderabad, July 7: The state housing department has built just 219 houses of the one lakh that the Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, had promised would be constructed for victims of the floods in Kurnool, Mahbubnagar, Prakasam and Guntur districts last year.

ONGOLE, June 18: Victims of Laila cyclone are unhappy over the visit of the central insp-ection team which is coming to Prakasam district on June 24 to assess damages.
They expressed fear of not getting aid from the union government as the inspection was too late to assess damage with cyclone-hit areas back to normalcy.

Guntur, May 30: The Varikipudisila lift irrigation scheme work is not moving forward due to the negligence of the government.

Throws Road & Rail Traffic Out Of Gear, Causes Outages Along Coast

Hyderabad: Even after Cyclone Laila weakened ahead of landfall, about 30km from Bapatla in Guntur district, on Thursday afternoon, it left 16 people dead, flooding thousands of homes, snapping power in many areas and throwing rail and road traffic out of gear in the coastal region of the state.

Cyclonic storm Laila remained stationary near south coastal
Andhra Pradesh as heavy rains and gales continued to batter the region for the third consecutive day on Friday, killing 27 people and inundating towns and villages.
The transport system was paralysed and electricity and communication disrupted. Heavy downpour continued in the worst-hit Prakasam and Guntur district while Nellore