By IANS,
Patna : The Bihar government Monday set up a crisis management group to suggest measures to tackle the drought-like situation in the state, officials said.
The decision to set up the group, headed by the state’s chief secretary, was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar here Monday, an official in the chief minister’s office said.
The chief minister also directed the chairman of the Bihar Electricity Board to ensure eight hours’ power supply to rural areas for irrigation purposes, the official said.
Due to the delayed monsoon and scanty rainfall, Bihar has only received 118.2 mm rainfall during the period June 1 to July 7 against the requirement of 246.5 mm – a deficit of 52 percent rainfall, said Animesh Chanda, the director of the local meteorological office.
Monsoon was delayed by two weeks in Bihar and rainfall was likely to be below normal, he added.