As the recent trends on drought coming from different districts in Jharkhand indicates towards a draught like situation in the State, the Government with the recommendations received from Disaster Management and other departments is soon to take a decision on the issue. According to the recent trends, as an average loss of around 35-40 per cent of paddy crops have been recorded across Jharkhand.
“As the Government will be back on work from Monday, it is believed that the issue of drought will be looked into,” said State Project Officer (Disaster Management) Colonel SK Srivastava on Sunday. He, however, maintained that despite negative reports received from various districts in the State, technically there was no draught in the State.
“It could not be said that there is drought in the State as the final call has to be taken by the Agriculture Department after properly examining the data made available to them by the districts. The department has to take a decision on it and steps to be taken to deal with the situation,” said Srivastava.
Talking about steps ahead, he added, “We generally provide 50 per cent subsidy to the farmers on diesel, facilitate Panchayat wise availability of food-grains, make drinking water available to the villages and also to ensure employment to the villagers through MGNREGA and other schemes.”
With the trends coming from different districts in Jharkhand indicates towards a draught like situation in the state, the agricultural department with the recommendations received from the Disaster Management will soon come up with a relief plan to deal with the situation.
“We have already sent the reports received from different districts to the Disaster Management for its appraisal and chalk out a plan to deal with the situation as per the circumstances after analysing the facts and figures depicted in the data made available to it,” said Agricultural Secretary Nitin Madan Kulkarni.
Sources in the Agricultural department however, revealed that the trends coming from the districts were disappointing which indicated towards a drought like situation.
“Due to low rainfall across the State, a loss of around 35-40 per cent has been recorded from across the State. Maximum loss however, has been registered in the districts like Ramgarh, West Singhbhum, Garhwa and Palamu, said a senior official in the agriculture department requesting anonymity.
Remarkably, condition in Santhal Pargana is better as compared to the other divisions in Jharkhand as scanty rains were recorded in the area recently giving a new lease of life to the paddy crops.
DCs across the State, in order to gauge the actual situation related to drought in the State, had been asked by Chief Minister Raghubar Das to submit reports to the Agriculture department and Disaster Management so that a decision on the issue could be taken accordingly.