The State government will soon submit a revised memorandum seeking Rs. 4,656 crore to take up drought relief works, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said.
Addressing presspersons after visiting a few drought-affected villages of Bailhongal and Savadatti taluks and subsequently reviewing implementation of relief works with the senior officials here on Friday afternoon, he said that the State had suffered an actual crop loss of Rs. 16,000 crore due to deficient rainfall in 139 taluks, besides losses worth Rs. 386 crore due to excessive rainfall in other parts of the State during the current year.
The revised memorandum seeking Rs. 4,656 crore was as per the guidelines of the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF). Last month, the government submitted a memorandum seeking Rs. 3,375 crore towards relief measures.
The revised memorandum was prepared after a detailed study of the impact of drought and excessive rainfall and it would be submitted to the Centre soon.
A Central team recently visited the affected areas in the State to assess the ground reality of the impact of drought and excessive rainfall.
He said that the State government had sanctioned Rs. 50 lakh each to drought-hit taluks towards relief works. The Centre had conceded its request to increase mandays under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme from six crore to 10 crore mandays.
The Chief Minister said that eight of the 10 taluks in Belagavi district had been declared drought-affected. Standing crops in 1.02 lakh hectares worth Rs. 605 crore had been lost due to shortage of rainfall and dry spells.
Mr. Siddaramaiah reminded that the district got the lion’s share in the total input subsidy credited directly to bank accounts of farmers who suffered crop losses during kharif and rabi seasons during 2015-16.
As much as Rs. 663 crore of input subsidy and another Rs. 31 crore as relief under crop insurance scheme were distributed among farmers of the district.
Directing officials to accord top priority to arrange for drinking water supply, fodder and creation of employment opportunities in villages, he told the officials concerned to complete 18 of the 21 Multi Village Drinking Water Supply Schemes in the district by March 2017 and the remaining three by December-end next year. He also asked them to open fodder banks to stock adequate fodder for cattle wherever it was needed.
The district authorities could also open cattle shelters only if it was necessary.
The Chief Minister was accompanied by Minister for Agriculture Krishna Byre Gowda, Congress chief whip Ashok Pattan, Minister for Small Scale Industries and District in-charge Ramesh L. Jarkiholi, Prakash B. Hukkeri, MP, and senior officials in the district administration.
