Due to less rainfall in the state this year too, there is a drought situation in 158 blocks of 17 districts. In the Jharkhand Ministry today, in the meeting of the State Disaster Management Authority under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Hemant Soren, in the light of the report of the Agriculture Department, it was recommended to declare all the above mentioned blocks as drought areas.
In the meeting, the Chief Minister directed the Disaster Management Department to prepare a proposal to declare all these 158 blocks as drought areas, so that it can be placed for approval in the Council of Ministers meeting.
The Chief Minister directed the officials of the Disaster Management Department to send a proposal to the Central Government to provide financial assistance to the drought affected farmers.
The Chief Minister told the officials that appropriate steps should be taken to provide relief to the farmers affected by drought. Like last year, this year too he directed to give ex-gratia amount of Rs 3500 per farmer as immediate relief to the farmers affected by drought. Apart from this, input grant amount will be paid to those farmers whose crops have been damaged up to 33 per cent due to less rainfall.
In this meeting, Ministers Banna Gupta and Badal, Chief Secretary L. Khiangate, Principal Secretary Ajay Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Vinay Kumar Choubey, Secretary Amitabh Kaushal, Secretary Abu Bakar Siddique and Special Secretary of Agriculture Department Pradeep Hazari were present.
Notably, a team of Government of India officials, under the leadership of Joint Secretary to the Government of India, S Rukmani, had visited Jharkhand last year to assess drought situation in the State. The Jharkhand Government had declared 226 blocks of all 22 districts as drought-hit, except East Singhbhum and Simdega in 2022-2023.
Jharkhand was reeling under drought due to scanty rainfall last year also. Due to lack of rain, the farmers had suffered a lot. In view of this, Rs 3500 per farmer's family was provided as assistance to the farmer's family by the State Government. According to an estimate, more than 30 lakh farmer families were affected by the drought. Keeping this in mind, the State Government had decided to spend about Rs 1,200 crore to provide financial assistance to the farmer families.
