Lucknow, March 17 (IANS): The Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh will establish Telemetric Weather Stations (TWS) in tehsils across various districts, an official said.

In the initial phase, the TWS will be set up in 100 most drought-prone tehsils across different districts with priority being given to setting up the stations in Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, and seven districts of Bundelkhand where the threat of drought looms large every year.

The Relief Commissioner's office has issued essential guidelines to Additional District Magistrates for this purpose, a government spokesperson said.

Furthermore, instructions have been given to mark the land for establishment during the process.

Principal Secretary Revenue P. Guru Prasad said that farmers in the state face significant challenges from drought every year. In wake of their predicament, it has been decided to initiate the setting up of 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.

Relief Commissioner G.S. Naveen said that in the first phase, priority will 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.

An amount of Rs 10 crore has been released for this. Necessary guidelines have been issued to the Additional District Magistrates of all the districts for marking the land for the purpose. It will be followed by the setting up of TWS in all tehsils and blocks of the state.

TWS will be set up at a distance of 7-10 kms from the Automatic Weather Station (AWS) and Automatic Rain-Gauge Station (ARG).

The Relief Commissioner said that guidelines have been issued for setting up weather stations at a distance of 7 to 10 kilometres from AWS/ARG in a space of 10x10 meters.

Moreover, the location where the weather station is to be installed should be a suitable distance from large trees and buildings to mitigate the potential risk posed by shade, sunlight, rain, and wind. Necessary measures for security against theft must also be put in place, he added.