DISTRICT LEVEL MONITORING COMMITTEE FOR DROUGHT RELIEF SUGGESTED
Union Agriculture Minster Shri Ajit
Singh today said that the States have been asked to form District
Level Monitoring Committees for relief operations in the drought-affected
areas. He said that elected representatives such as MPs and MLAs
would be associated with these committees so that people in the
affected areas become aware of the kind of assistance that is
available to them by the Government, besides making the whole
operation transparent. Shri Ajit Singh was addressing a meeting
of the Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry here. Refuting
the allegation that some states have been discriminated against
while giving Central assistance, the Minister said that the Eleventh
Finance Commission has decided assistance to the States from the
Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) and Central Government doesn’t decide
about the allocation in this regard. Secondly, he said, the money
from the National Clamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) is given after
proper assessment by a High Level Committee. By way of example,
Shri Ajit Singh said that last year, Orissa and Gujarat were given
the maximum amount of assistance from NCCF as these two states
were devastated by super cyclone and earthquake respectively.
Rajasthan was given Rs. 80 crore and Chhattisgarh by 42 crore.
He said that an amount of Rs. 42 crore has been cleared for Madhya
Pradesh yesterday out of this Fund.
Outlining the measures taken by the
Central Government, Shri Ajit Singh said that drought-affected
States have been asked to start Food for Work Programme immediately,
for which the Centre has already released the 2nd installment
of food grain under the Sampurna Grameen Rojgar Yojana (SGRY).
Describing the drought situation as
serious, the Minister said that both the Centre and the States
should work together to mitigate hardships of farmers and the
poor. He told the members that due to deficient rainfall, sowing
of coarse grains have been affected. He said that States have
assured the Central Government that they are ready with Contingency
Plans for sowing of alternate crops, provision of drinking water
supply and fodder. He assured the members that the Central Government
is in constant touch with the affected States. He informed the
members that the Task Force under the Chairmanship of Dy. Chairman
has held a meeting for tackling the drought situation and he himself
had taken a meeting of the State Agriculture and Revenue Ministers
to access the situation. Besides, National Committee on Crisis
Management has met under the chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary
and the Crisis Management Group of his Ministry has been meeting
regularly. Based on these discussions and recommendation from
the Union Agriculture Ministry, the Finance Ministry has released
the 2nd installment of the Centre’s share of CRF to
the States, he added. Shri Ajit Singh said that Reserve Bank of
India and National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)
have been asked to postpone and reschedule loans of the farmers.
Besides, the Centre has asked sugar mill owners to immediately
release the sugarcane dues of the farmers which awards to about
Rs. 1000 crore. He said that farmers can be compensated for damage
to crop and for providing fodder to the cattle under CRF. The
Minister said that for compensation under the National Agricultural
Insurance Scheme, the cut-off date for non-loanee farmers would
be extended beyond 31st July on a case-to-case basis.
Participating in the discussion, members
suggested that arrangements should be made for proper distribution
of water from the reservoirs. They also called for exemption of
loans of farmers. They said that because of deficient rainfall
water level has substantially gone down. Some members suggested
that focused attention should be given to chronically drought
affected and flood affected States. Shri Ajit Singh said that
States have been asked to undertake repair of tube wells for drinking
water for which an allocation of Rs. 115 crore has been made.
The members who participated in the
discussion were S/shri Bhartruhari Mahtab, Rattan Lal Kataria,
K.P. Singh Deo, N. Janaradhana Reddy, Haribhai Chaudhary, Mahboob
Zahedi, Th. Chaoba Singh, Urkhao Gwra Brahma and Smt. Preneet
Kaur.
