Drought & deluge in Bihar

30 districts likely to be declared drought-hit

The weather god has been doling out one blow after another to this State for the last couple of months.

While on the one hand, some of the districts in North Bihar are on the verge of being declared flood-hit, the rest 30 districts are likely to be declared drought-hit on the basis of reports submitted by the ministers in charge of different districts.

The State Government has already put a contingency plan to combat the drought. The Bihar State Electricity Board (BSEB) has been directed to provide eight hours of power supply to rural areas so that the farmers can irrigate their land.

Authorities have been asked to make the tubewells functional and repair the non-functioning transformers at the earliest.

The government, which had earlier announced to give Rs 15 as diesel subsidy, has now decided to extend it further if it fails to rain in August and September. Besides, a Crisis Management Group (CMG), headed by the Chief Secretary and comprising all the departmental heads, has been formed, which will meet daily to review the situation and apprise the Chief Minister of the impending crisis.

Apart from this, a control room will be set up in the Food department to check hoarding and black-marketing of foodgrains.

Meanwhile, the prolonged dry spell in Western Bihar may soon come to an end with dark clouds hovering over the area for the last 24 hours.

“Rain god may compensate the deficient rainfall in the coming days. But the damage has already been done. The scanty rainfall has held up the paddy transplantation, causing immense damage to farmers. Even if it rained heavily from today onwards, there is no way the farmers can overcome the losses,” said a top functionary of the Agriculture Department.