Special Committee to assess Palamau situation
Despite worst ever rainfall in most parts of the State Chief Minister Hemant Soren refused to accept it was near drought. In his reply to the debate on the matter in the House on Wednesday the CM termed the situation as an early drought which can improve in the days to come. Though, he assured the members that the Government was ready to deal with any situation. "Though I don't believe the figures coming for rainfall much authentic but I can say as per the parameters set that it is an early drought like situation. There are districts such as Deoghar, Pakur, West Singhbhum, Saraikela where around 100 per cent rainfall has taken place. I accept that very low rainfall has been in Palamau, Garhwa, Ramgrah and Dhanbad with 38, 31, 35 and 66 per cent rainfall respectively. But lot of time is still left and situation may improve," said Soren.
The CM mentioned about parameters such as soil moisture content, green vegetative index etc, which he said were not less than 50 per cent, considered mandatory before declaring drought.
Though, the statement of the CM did not go well with members from supporting parties. Even Daltonganj MlA and Rural Development Minister KN Tripathi disagreed with CM followed by Anant Pratap Dev (Bhavnathpur), SN Tiwari (Garhwa), Sudha Chaoudhary (Chattarpur) and Sanjay Prasad Singh Yadav (Husainabad). Most of the MlAs termed the situation alarming in Palamu Division and demanded to declare the area drought affected.
This made Speaker Shashank Shekhar Bokta to intervene and unanimously an Assembly committee of the MlA from Palalmu was formed which would submit a report with the Government about the prevailing situatio.
The CM maintained that the State the Government was ready with all secondary measures to assist people from the tight situation. "We have alternative arrangements ready with us. We have done tender for seeds for the areas with less rainfall, 50 UlBs primarily from Palamau have been selected for deep borewells. loan capacity on KCC without any document has been raised from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. Provision for Agriculture Equipment Bank has been made from where marginal farmers can borrow tractors, tillers, harvesting machines etc," added the CM. He informed that the time line for implementing Food Security Act in Jharkhand has been extended till October as survey for all the families had not been complete. "We are serious about the problem but just making declarations are going to do anything," said the CM. Members, moreover, stressed on having a permanent policy with the Government as the calamity has become permanent feature in the State and also for proper implementation of schemes like NREGA. The House passed a resolution to request the Center for increasing Rs 1,600 crore budget for the rural job scheme which has been reduced to Rs 754 crore for the year. Pradeep Yadav said it might have been reduced by the Centre due to lower expenditure and the Government should keep that in mind.