HYDERABAD: Opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday urged chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to declare 451 mandals in the state drought-hit.In a letter to the chief minister, the TDP chief said as many as 451 mandals in the state had faced prolonged dry spell this season and they should be declared drought hit to help the small and marginal farmers who are in distress.Expressing serious concern over the apathy of the state government towards the farm sector, Naidu said many farmers had become averse to agriculture due to anti-ryot policies.This would pose a grave threat to food security in the future, Naidu said.Quoting the disaster management authority statistics, he said drought situation was prevailing in around 40 per cent of mandals in the state.Of the total 1,128 mandals, 451 are drought-hit. In the drought-hit mandals, crops in around 29 lakh acres got dried up. Paddy crop in 10 lakh acres, groundnut crop in 14 lakh acres, cotton and maize in 5 lakh acres were completely damaged due to drought, he said. Naidu informed the chief minister the delay in declaring the mandals drought-hit and preparing contingency plans to meet the situation, were causing heartburn among farmers
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