State seeks Rs 2,434 cr for drought relief from Centre

The state government on Monday submitted a final memorandum to the Centre, seeking a financial assistance of Rs 2,434 crore for undertaking drought relief works in the state.

Revenue Minister R V Deshpande, who submitted a memorandum to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, has pegged the agriculture and horticulture crop loss due to drought at Rs 16,662 crore during the kharif season.

Over the last few months, as many as 145 taluks in the state have been affected either by drought or floods, causing large-scale damage to both public and private properties.

After evaluating the drought indicators, the government has notified 100 taluks in 24 districts as drought affected. About 26.18 lakh hectare of agriculture area and 1.94 lakh hectare of horticulture area have suffered more than 33% crop loss. The state government has released Rs 25 crore from the state funds and SDRF to take up relief works such as augmenting water supply and drilling new borewells, the minister has stated in the memorandum.

About 80% of the state is affected either by drought or floods, severely impacting the state’s economy and causing cumulative losses of more than Rs 20,000 crore. "I request you to release Rs 2,434 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to provide timely release for aggrieved farmers,” Deshpande has said in the letter.