Over 964 thousand tonnes of food grains was dispatched
to the drought affected States up to the 14th during
the current month against a target of 2118 thousand tonnes for
the whole month. This emerged at a meeting of the Crisis Management
Group headed by the Drought Relief Commissioner here yesterday.
It was decided at the meeting to keep a close watch on the movement
of food grains so that the target for the whole month could be
achieved. During the week ending 15.6.03, Railways transported
588 wagons of water to Rajasthan and 210 to Gujarat. Railways
also transported 40 wagons of fodder each to Gujarat and Andhra
Pradesh during the same period.
The responsibility of management of drought primarily
rests with the State Governments while the Central Government
supports the States in carrying out relief operations through
financial assistance, assistance of food grains and other logistic
support. With active participation of the Department of Food and
Public Distribution, Department of Rural Development, Department
of Drinking Water Supply, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry
of Home Affairs, Ministry of Finance and Railway Board, the Central
Government has undertaken massive drought relief operations in
the severely affected States. The Department of Agriculture and
Cooperation is monitoring the operations.
The severely affected States are Andhra Pradesh,
Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Orissa and Tamil Nadu.
