CONSIDERABLE IMPROVEMENT SEEN
IN DROUGHT-HIT AREAS FOLLOWING RAINS
Considerable
improvement has taken place in the drought-affected areas of Orissa,
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan
under the impact of South West Monsoon. This has been brought
out in the drought situation report of the Agriculture Ministry
for the week ending 27th June, 2003. With the states
receiving adequate rainfall, a declining trend is seen in the
number of relief works and labour engaged in relief employment
in Chhatisgarh, Gujarat and Tamilnadu. By the 26th
of this month, the 9 drought affected states had utilized 55.82
lakh MT of foodgrains against 79.17 lakh MT allotted. With good
rains in several parts of Rajasthan, less number of wagons were
deployed by the Railways for transportation of water. Railways
carried 531 wagons of water to Rajasthan and 210 to Gujarat for
the week ending 23rd June 2003. Railways also carried
40 wagons of fodder to Gujarat during the same period. During
the previous week, Railways carried 588 wagons of water to Rajasthan
and 210 to Gujarat. In June, up to the 22nd of the
month, 14.46 lakh MT of foodgrains was moved to the 9 drought
affected states as against 21.18 lakh MT planned for the whole
month. The 9 drought affected states are Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,
Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan
and Tamilnadu.
Preliminary findings
of the Nutritional Survey being conducted by the National Institute
of Nutrition, Hyderabad in respect of Jaisalmer and Barmer are
now available. No instance of serious mal-nutrition came to notice.
The survey finds the nutritional status of children to be better
than during the drought of 2000 in the same districts. The survey
attributed this improvement to the large and early availability
of foodgrains through relief works.
