The Hindu : Drought situation still grim: Kharge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 28, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Drought situation still grim: Kharge

By Our Special Correspondent

GULBARGA June 27. The Home Minister, Mallikarjun Kharge, has said that the drought situation in the State continues to be grim in most parts of the State. Rains have not been widespread and uniform.

Only the coastal districts, the Malnad region, and a few districts such as Belgaum, Dharwad, and Davangere have benefited from the rain.

Talking to presspersons here on Friday, Mr. Kharge, who is the Chairman of the Cabinet subcommittee on drought management, said the drought relief works would continue.

Farm labourers had been hit hard due to the irregular monsoon and the delay in sowing for the kharif season.

Mr. Kharge said the failure of the Centre to release adequate quantity of foodgrains under the food-for-work (FFW) programme had affected the drought relief works.

The State Government had lifted the entire stock of 6.65 lakh tonnes of foodgrains released by the Union Government.

The utilisation certificate for 92 per cent of the stock lifted had been submitted, and details of the remaining part would be given soon.

He said the Union Government had been apprised of the difficulties faced by the State Government in taking up relief works in the absence of foodgrains.

The Chief Minister, S.M.Krishna, and he (Mr. Kharge) had met the Prime Minister, A.B.Vajpayee, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K.Advani, the Agriculture Minister, Rajnath Singh, the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution, Sharad Yadav, and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, K.C.Pant. A memorandum was submitted seeking foodgrains under the FFW programme, and additional grains under the Swarna Gram Rozgar Yojana to facilitate the gram panchayats to take up the drought relief works using the available funds and foodgrains.

Mr. Kharge said the Prime Minister had promised to convene a meeting of the Drought Management Committee headed by Mr. Advani shortly to discuss the demand for release of additional foodgrains from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and other States to tackle the drought.

The minister hoped that the Centre would release foodgrains immediately.

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