Central team to visit state soon to study drought situation

With several parts of Karnataka facing severe drought, the Centre on Thursday informed the state that it will soon send a high-level team to assess the situation in the calamity-hit areas.

After receiving a memorandum from Karnataka Revenue Minister Kagodu Thimmappa and Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda here, seeking Central assistance, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh informed them that a team headed by Union Agriculture Ministry Joint Secretary A Niraja will tour the state soon. After getting the report from the team, the Centre will take a decision on releasing grant to state, Singh told the Karnataka ministers.

After the meeting, Thimmappa told reporters that the Union Minister promised to send a team to the state soon to study the ground situation. Karnataka has declared 110 taluks drought-hit and sought Rs 3,375.77-crore assistance from the Centre to tackle the situation.

Besides, the state has sought Rs 120.13 crore to help those farmers who have not sown paddy in the Cauvery command area, Thimmappa stated. In the memorandum, the state government said that prolonged continuous dry spell in the drought-declared taluks has destroyed crops on 25.57 lakh hectares and the loss is estimated at Rs 11,051.33 crore. Besides, Rs.1094.46 crore worth of horticulture crops grown on 1.89 lakh hectares have also been damaged due to failure of rains.

With Karnataka facing drought for the sixth consecutive year, the state government may have to declare another 25 taluks as drought-hit if it does not rain in the next few weeks, Thimmappa said.

The state government said the rainfall deficit was (-) 57% in south interior Karnataka and (-) 37% in the Malnad during August and (-) 72% in south interior Karnataka and (-) 36% in Malnad during September.

Buoyed by good rains during June, cultivation of kharif crops was taken up across the state on 71.67 lakh hectares. As the season progressed, good rainfall received during June-July was completely offset by deficit rains in August-September, the state said.