With reservoirs draining well ahead of winter and temperatures already touching 38 degrees Celsius — heat levels Telangana normally sees in March — Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has put every department of the state government on emergency footing over an accelerating El Niño-driven drought crisis. Addressing a press conference at the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar State Secretariat alongside Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka and multiple cabinet ministers on Thursday, 15 October 2026, the Chief Minister's Office of Telangana laid out a multi-pronged action plan — and issued a direct, urgent appeal to farmers to skip one cropping season.

What the CM told farmers — and why it matters

The most striking ask from CM Revanth Reddy was aimed squarely at the farming community. 'Pedda manasutho oka season panta vayidaa vesukovali' — 'With a generous heart, please postpone one season's crop' — he urged cultivators to hold back from sowing summer paddy. His reasoning was blunt: with water too scarce even for drinking, any farmer who plants rice despite warnings risks watching the crop wither, burning out motors and meters, and losing the entire investment. The state, he said, cannot guarantee irrigation supply for summer paddy under current conditions.

He also acknowledged a parallel humanitarian obligation. Alongside farmers, 2.5 lakh landless labourers are expected to seek MGNREGA employment this season. He directed the concerned minister to draw up a special action plan to ensure drought-relief work reaches the most vulnerable.

Reservoir collapse and a ten-month water math

The numbers behind the emergency are stark. At the same point last year, Telangana's reservoirs held 462 TMC of water. Today, the figure stands at 200 TMC — less than half. The CM said that water must be stretched across 8 to 10 months, right through to June, and drinking water for 24,000 villages across the state is the first non-negotiable call on that supply. Every other use — irrigation, industry — comes after that.

The power situation is equally stressed. Telangana's electricity consumption has surged from an average of 6,500–7,000 MW in 2014–15 to 20,000 MW today — a rise of roughly 14,000 MW over 13 years, with 6,000–7,000 MW of that jump coming in just the past two years. The CM confirmed the state is buying power from wherever it is available in the market to ensure that harvest-ready kharif crops — which will be cut in the next 15–20 days — do not fail at the last moment.

All-party meeting and the Delhi delegation

The CM announced two formal political steps. First, an all-party meeting will be convened immediately after the Dasara festival to brief every political party on the severity of the crisis and seek their suggestions. Second, in the first week of November, he will lead an all-party delegation to New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister and formally request central support — both additional power allocation from the central pool at subsidised rates and funds from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to compensate farmers for current crop losses as well as losses arising from the season they are being asked to skip. He cited a United Nations assessment that nearly 100 countries are facing El Niño impacts, making this a global natural disaster that qualifies for disaster-fund relief.

War room, nodal officer, and the sub-committee

The government has set up an institutional response structure. Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka will chair a sub-committee that continuously monitors the unfolding situation. CM Adviser K. Ramakrishna Rao has been designated as nodal officer to provide the public with round-the-clock official information via a dedicated toll-free helpline and a war room. The CM warned citizens — and opposition parties — against spreading misinformation about El Niño and the water or power situation, calling for collective discipline. The Health Department has also been placed on standby to assist the poor through the severe heat ahead.

Telangana's crisis is not isolated. El Niño years have repeatedly compressed the southwest monsoon across peninsular India, leaving southern states to balance drinking water, irrigation, power and livelihoods simultaneously — precisely the bind the state now faces. The coming weeks, as Dasara ends and the all-party meeting takes shape, will test whether that federal compact holds.