Around two-thirds of the districts could be declared drought hit in Uttar Pradesh as 53 regions have been identified with 40 per cent deficit rains, official said here on Wednesday.
Principal secretary revenue Kisan Singh Atoria said here that a process is underway to identify the drought hit districts. “Approximately 53 districts could be declared drought hit but we could know about the exact figure once the process is completed,” Atoria said.
Officials said there are acute drought conditions in Rampur, Meerut, Budaun, Auraiyya, Saharanpur, Etah, Kaushambi, Fatehpur, Hapur, Mainpuri, Mahoba, Etawah, Kanpur dehat, Hardoi, Firozabad, Hardoi, Farukkhabad, Bulandshahr and Ghaziabad areas. Of the normal drought affected districts, prominent are Mau, Jaunpur, Chandauli, Azamgarh, Mathura, Aligarh, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Bareilly, Pilibhit, Kannauj and Hathras.
After reports of scanty rainfall Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has asked chief secretary Alok Ranjan to assess the drought conditions so that relief could be provided to farmers. The district magistrate of the affected districts have been asked to prepare a status report and submit it to the government at the earliest.
“Once the government receives a status report with regards to the district administration’s assessment, we will propose compensation and final assistance,” Atoria said. UP government has already suspended recovery of loans by the cooperative banks in the state due to the drought like situation.