An inter-ministerial central team to assess drought condition has come to conclusion that crop damage is extensive in Jharkhand necessitating the start of relief measures for farmers.
The team led by joint secretary union agriculture department Aatish Chandra visited 42 villages in 20 blocks of seven districts in state during their three-day review of the drought condition in state. The team wanted to verify the memorandum of demands raised by state government by studying the situation at the ground level.
In a meeting held with senior government officials including the chief secretary Sudhir Tripahti on Sunday the central team demanded more documents related to drought from state government. The state government assured that the papers would be provided within two days.
“We have to look into the issues according to norms of NDRF. We would study the documents of state government and submit the report within 10 days,” a central team officer stated.
“The central team has admitted that crop damage is extensive and that drought relief needed to be given to the state,” said the CS. He added state government’s demands were based on two planks including providing immediate relief to affected people and taking steps to prevent recurrence of the situation again.
It may be stated here that state government has demanded a sum of Rs 818 crore as drought relief measures from centre.
During an interaction with the central team before its field visit the state officials stated that among the worst affected districts were Koderma, Giridih, Palamau, Garhwa, Pakud, Godda and Dumka. The officials said processes of Drought Manual 2016 was adopted while declaring 129 blocks of 18 districts as drought-prone. Out of 129, 93 blocks have been badly affected and 36 have been affected moderately.