The State Government has placed a demand of Rs1,140.77 crore to the Centre under drought relief.
Agriculture Minister Randheer Singh informed the House on Wednesday that more than half of the assistance would go for water resource management and Rs216 crore for animal husbandry.
Replying at the end of a special debate on the ‘biggest challenge’ for the State in the House, the Minister also said that unspent amount with the Disaster Management Department would also be used to mitigate the ill effects of the calamity.
“The Cabinet had decided to declare drought on December 1 and based on the set standards we have sought assistance from the Centre. Even today I have talked to the Union Agriculture Minister who informed me that a team of officials drawn
from eight departments would visit the State in three days for a survey. We have placed a demand of Rs1,140.77 crore of which Rs723 crore would go for water resources and Rs216 crore would be spent on animal husbandry,” said Singh.
The Minister added that the Government would also be using Rs1,164 crore lying with the Disaster Management Department. “It is feared that foodgrain production would not go beyond 55 lakh metric tonne this time due to the failure of SW monsoon. The Government has taken some serious measures due to that. We have decided to provide 75 per cent subsidy on seeds for rabi and next kharif, diesel on 50 per cent subsidy, free diesel and solar pumping sets, 175 solar driven deep bore wells and 260 big ponds would come up. Besides, task force for regular monitoring would be placed at district and State levels,” he said counting some of the steps taken.
The Government would also build 773 check dams and allocate Rs480 crore under MGNREGA by ensuring at least one work at every village. Earlier, MlAs cutting across party lines demanded for long and short term measures to be taken and also for ensuring proper benefits from the irrigation projects in the State.
JVM’s Pradeep Yadav lashed out at the industrialisation done and dams built in the State and blamed those for mass level displacements taken place. “We have been seeing the cases where lakhs of displaced are still waiting for compensation and jobs promised decades ago. In many cases someone else has taken away the compensation. All these are adding to the woes of the tribal and farmers of the State who are year after year facing drought,” said Yadav and demanded from the Government to announce compensation of Rs10,000 per acre to the farmers.
BJP’s Radha Krishna Kishore questioned expenditure of over Rs600 crore by Water Resources Department since the State was formed in 2000 while just 2.66 lakh hectares of additional land came under irrigation with that.
Govt places 2nd Supplementary
Ranchi: The Government on Wednesday placed its second supplementary budget of Rs9,688.11 crore before the House. Highest Rs9,607 crore is meant for Energy Department followed by Rs577 crore for Rural Development and Rs250 crore for Road Construction. Discussion on the Budget would take place on Thursday.