To inspect the situation of drought in the State, a team of Government of India officials reached Ranchi on Tuesday under the leadership of Joint Secretary to the Government of India, S Rukmani. This team will hold a meeting with the officials of the State Government.
After that the team will visit the drought affected areas. Only after that it will be decided as to what is the status of the areas in the list issued by the Jharkhand Government. Till January 13, the team will take stock of different blocks of Jharkhand. Only after that, according to the demand of Jharkhand, a decision will be taken on whether the Central Government will get assistance of Rs 9,000 crores under the drought relief scheme or not.
In the team that reached Ranchi, Dr Man Singh, Niti Aayog's, SC Meena, Director, Karan Chowdhary, Dr Rajshekhar, Advisor, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, VR Thakre, Director of Animal Husbandry Department, UK Nayyar, Deputy Secretary of Rural Development, Pramod Narayan, Director of Water Resources Department, Mahesh Kumar, Director, Department of Expenditure, Brijmohan Singh, Assistant Director, Khadi and Public Distribution Department are included.
A report will also be handed over to the team from the Center by the State Government. On the basis of the report, according to the demand of Jharkhand, an amount of Rs 9,000 crores can be received from the Central Government under the drought relief scheme. The State Government will get the amount under drought relief in three instalments.
The Jharkhand Government has declared 226 blocks of all 22 districts as drought-hit, except East Singhbhum and Simdega. Rukmani said that after taking information from the State Government, the team will visit different blocks of Jharkhand till January 13. After that it will be assessed that the areas which have been declared drought prone by the State Government. What is the situation there?
Jharkhand is reeling under drought due to scanty rainfall this year. Due to lack of rain, the farmers have suffered a lot. In view of this, 3500 per farmer's family is being provided as assistance to the farmer's family by the State Government. According to an estimate, more than 30 lakh farmer families are affected by the drought. Keeping this in mind, the State Government has decided to spend about Rs 1,200 crore to provide financial assistance to the farmer families.
