By IANS,
Kolkata : The West Bengal government Monday identified 11 districts of the state as drought hit.
Announcing the decision after a high-level meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at the state secretariat Writers’ Buildings here, Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said these districts have received 30 percent less rainfall this year.
The districts are Purulia, Bankura, Murshidabad, Birbhum, Burdwan, Hooghly, West Midnapore, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Nadia and Malda.
“We are giving total Rs.50 crore to these districts,” Dasgupta said. The fund is to be used for repairing and redigging of tubewells and arranging of pumpsets.
The chief minister is writing to union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to send a central team for assessing the situation in the 11 districts, he said.
Agriculture Minister Naren De said paddy production in the state was 100 lakh tonnes last year, but had gone down by 27 lakh tonnes this year, due to drought.
Apart from Bhattacharjee, Dasgupta and De, Food Minister Paresh Adhikary and Irrigation Minister Subhas Naskar attended the meeting.