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Weather alerts for farmers in drought prone UP tehsils soon
In the first phase, Telemetric Weather Stations would be set up in 100 tehsils of east UP and Bundelkhand regions.
The state government will set up Telemetric Weather Stations (TWS) in tehsils across various districts.
Principal secretary revenue P. Guru Prasad said that farmers in the state face significant challenges from drought every year. “So, it has been decided to set up TWS in 100 tehsils across different districts of the state in the initial phase. Subsequently, TWS will be established in all tehsils within every district of the state,” he said.
In the initial phase, TWS will be set up in 100 most drought-prone tehsils across different districts, according to a government press release. These include Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, and seven districts of Bundelkhand where the threat of drought looms large every year.
Relief commissioner GS Naveen said that in the first phase, priority would be given to the tehsils of all seven Bundelkhand districts, including Banda, Chitrakoot, Hamirpur, Jhansi, Lalitpur, Mahoba, and Jalaun, which suffer from heightened drought impact. Besides, weather stations will be set up in all tehsils of Sonbhadra, two tehsils of Mirzapur, and one tehsil of each district of the state.
Notably, an amount of ₹10 crore has been released for this purpose. The relief commissioner’s office has issued essential guidelines to the additional district magistrates of all the districts for marking the land for the purpose. It will be followed by setting up of TWS in all tehsils and blocks of the state.
The relief commissioner said that guidelines have also been issued for setting up weather stations at a distance of 7 to 10 kilometers from automatic weather station (AWS) and automatic raingauge station {ARG) in a space of 10x10 meters. Moreover, the location where the weather station is to be installed should have a suitable distance from large trees and buildings to mitigate potential risk posed by shade, sunlight, rain, and wind. Necessary measures for security against theft must also be put in place, he added.
