By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh Government has declared entire Chachoda tahsil of Guna district and a group of 12 villages in Guna tahsil as drought affected on the basis of norms prescribed for drought assessment. A notification to this effect has already been issued.
With this, the total number of drought-affected tahsils has gone up to 165 in 39 districts in Madhya Pradesh. The villages that compose the group as drought affected in Guna tahsil include Sirasi, Devgarh, Karke Ki Mahu, Harili, Suator, Rehpura, Nayagaon, Bharatpur, Kilampur, Kalechheri, Kanavata and Ajitkheda.
It may be mentioned here that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently met the Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia in New Delhi and demanded central assistance to the state in view of the severe drought conditions in Bunelkhad region and other areas of the state. He said that Madhya Pradesh should be given a special package like Bihar. Earlier, the Chief Minister had written a letter to the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh seeking immediate central assistance to tack drought situation in the state.
The state government has demanded Rs. 1548 crore 91 lakh for drought relief works. A memorandum to this effect was also presented to the central team that visited the state in February last to assess drought conditions.
The Chief Minister, in his letter to the Prime Minister, has demanded that in addition to six droughts affected districts of Bundelkhand region, three drought hit districts of Vindhya region should be covered under the study for long-term measures against drought. The state government has sent a Rs. 22,250 crore special development plan prepared for these nine districts to the centre.
Meanwhile, Chouhan has said that the need for employment generation in rural areas of drought-affected districts would be taken care of. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme provides for hundred days employment to the need in a year, which would benefit the needy.
The Chief Minister reviewed the situation arising out of the dry spell and other natural calamities in the state at a meeting of the cabinet committee here at Mantralaya today. The Minister for Finance Raghavji and the Chief Secretary R.C. Sahni also attended the meeting.
The meeting was informed that relief amounting to Rs. 43 crore has been distributed to farmers whose crops were damaged due to cold waves and frost last month in the state. These calamities befell 19 districts. Arrangements of fodder have been made as per requirement in other drought affected districts. ([email protected])