By IANS,
Lucknow : Uttar Pradesh received heavy rainfall within 24 hours of the state government’s declaration that 47 of its 70 districts were “drought-hit”.
“It is a delayed monsoon”, said a senior official at the state meteorological department, as 57 cm of rain fell Monday.
“We were always of the view that this year’s monsoon was going to get delayed; and you can see the heavy downpour that large parts of the state have received over the past 24 hours,” he said.
He was confident that the rain would continue.
Agricultural experts believe that even though a large part of the paddy area could not be sown due to the lack of rainfall earlier, the current rain would make up for a substantial part of the loss suffered.
According to official estimates, scanty rain had adversely affected about 5.3 million hectares of paddy area, where sowing could not carried out properly because of inadequate water availability.
Until Monday, Uttar Pradesh had received only about 128 cm of rainfall since June 1, as against the expected normal rainfall of about 307 cm.
In the drought-hit districts it was even worse as the recorded rainfall was barely 60 cm.