Drought: Farmers facing severe hardship, CM to Central team

Bengaluru: Karnataka has sought Rs 7,142.64 crore as per the national disaster response force (NDRF) norms, Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said on Saturday. Shivakumar and his deputy G Parameshwara briefed the inter-ministerial central team (IMCT), which began its field visits to assess the drought situation on Saturday.”Karnataka is facing a severe drought situation. Farmers and the general public are facing immense hardship,” Shivakumar told the IMCT. Of the 240 taluks in Karnataka, 217 have been declared drought-affected. An estimated economic loss of Rs 46,324.50 crore has been incurred in 177 taluks.The government had initially declared 101 taluks drought-affected and sought Rs 3,701 crore in relief.Dharwad gears up for drought relief, focuses on water, fodder and jobs”Now, in the revised list, a total relief of Rs 7,142.64 crore has been sought for the 177 declared drought-affected taluks,” the chief minister said. “If farmers are distressed, everything comes to a standstill. Therefore, the central government should come to the aid of the state’s farmers,” he appealed. Shivakumar said he and Parameshwara had not seen people going through such hardship in their 40-year public career “Except for Krishna basin, the inflow into all reservoirs is low. There has been a severe shortage of rainfall even in Malnad and coastal regions. Despite this, the state is being ordered to release Cauvery river. Urban areas are also facing water problems,” Shivakumar said. Responding to the CM’s appeal, union joint secretary and IMCT head Ajeet Kumar Sahu was quoted in a statement as saying: “We will travel across the state for three days, assess the ground situation, obtain data from state officials and submit an objective report”.Parameshwara, the revenue minister, said the ground reality was explained to the IMCT.”The state has already suffered 82% crop loss. Rainfall over the past 2-3 days will not help crops that are already damaged,” he said, adding that 49 lakh farmers in the state had enrolled for crop insurance, calling it the highest so far. 

Source: Deccan Herald