State hopes Centre gives substantial drought relief

The State government has impressed upon the Central team, which is touring the State to study the drought situation, the difficulties faced by the people due to non-availability of power.

Two teams comprising six members each, visited Chikkaballpur, Kolar, Tumkur, and Chitradurga districts on Monday to assess the impact of drought in an “intensive manner”.

K Amaranarayana, Secretary to the Revenue department, said that the team - which was briefed by his department - focused on the power crisis during February, March and April.
“The team’s intent was to conduct an intensive study involving less travel time, and as per their indication we have chosen these four districts. As the power situation has had an adverse impact on drinking water supply, aggravating the farmer’s woes, we are hoping to receive substantive grants from the Centre,” he said.

Positive feedback

The officer said that he had already received a positive feedback from the team which visited Tumkur during the day.

“The team has seen the real difficulties and heard about it from farmers’ and women’s groups. They now have first hand information,” he said.

The government has sought Rs 5,864.25 crore from the Centre. It is hoping that the Centre will release at least Rs 1,500 crore. Once the Centre releases the relief amount, a sub-committee headed by the Revenue minister (Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda holds  the portfolio) and comprising agriculture, water resources and RD&PR ministers will decide how the grant should be divided and utilised. After the two-day visit, the team will participate in a wrap-up meeting to be chaired by the chief minister in Bangalore at 9 am on May 16.

The drought team

Team 1: Pravesh Sharma, MD, Small Farmers, Agri Business Consortium, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, New Delhi; D Rajashekar, Deputy Advisor, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, New Delhi ; D Ranga Reddy, Superintendent Engineer, Central Water Commission, Bangalore; B L Meena, Assistant Director, Department of Expenditure, Finance Commission division, New Delhi; Rajpal Singh, Director, Project Appraisal and Management division, Planning Commission, New Delhi and Vibhu Tripathi, Assistant Director, Central Electricity

Authority, New Delhi

Team 2: Dr K Manoharan, Director in-charge, Directorate of Tobacco Development, Chennai; Rama Verma, Under Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, New Delhi; Nandakumar A, Director, Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries;
Jose, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Power; Dr Anbazhagal, Senior Regional Director, Regional Office, Health and Family Welfare, Bangalore;
Dr Tara, Regional Director, National Institute of Public Policy and Child Development
Bangalore.