Hyderabad, July 30th: The monsoon has betrayed the state this year and a looming drought now stares hard at it. Though the Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, has always claimed that the rain gods are with him, this time they have turned their faces away. His prayers and pujas have gone unheeded. Of the 23 districts in the state, 19 have received deficit rainfall this monsoon. Of them, 7 districts are the worst hit and got 60 to 99 per cent less than the average rainfall.

Farmers are already in distress and city dwellers are worried about water and power shortages in the coming days. If the rains stay away for two more weeks, the State government is likely to declare Andhra Pradesh drought hit. Water levels have plummeted in many reservoirs and bore wells have gone dry in the drought-hit. The Chief Minister has directed all district collectors to ensure drinking water supply in areas suffering from scarcity. He has also advised farmers to go for a changed cropping pattern.

Meteorologists have disclosed that average rainfall in the state from June 1 to July 29 was just 147.2 mm as against the normal of 287.7 mm. During Kharif, only Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam received normal rainfall. East Godavari, Anantapur, Kadapa, Kurnool, Chittoor, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and some more districts got deficit rainfall.