As monsoon continued to play traunt, Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar today directed the officials to prepare contingency plans to face scarcity conditions in the coming months and announced immediate release of Rs 136 crore for relief works.
Reviewing the drought situation in 23 districts with top district administration officials through video conferencing, Shettar said Rs 40 crore had also been released for drinking water in urban areas where water shortage has been reported.
Shettar, who was sworn in yesterday, said there were shortcomings in implementation of employment guarantee scheme in some districts and asked the officials to ensure people got jobs.
The water level in various reservoirs of the state was depleting due to failure of rains, he said, adding, the government would soon take a decision whether to go in for cloud seeding.
Only 10.88 lakh hecatres out of 74.70 lakh hectares has come under sowing during this Khariff season, indicating the gravity of the situation, he pointed out.
The state government had so far released Rs 2,193 crore for relief works and Rs 1,736 crore spent, he said.
He said though the state submitted two memorandum to the Centre seeking Rs 6,215 crore assistane, only Rs 352.58 crore had been released.
Ministerial colleagues of Shettar and top officials of Revenue, Finance and other departments were present during the interaction with Deputy Commiossioners, CEOs of Zilla Panchayats and others.
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