Govt Launches Plan To Combat Drought

An innovative central programme has been launched in Orissa and Rajasthan to intervene in the drought.

The programme, envisaged as a series of grain banks and generating employment through water harvesting schemes, will have an important political spin-off, especially in Rajasthan that is going to the polls later this year.

It has been forced through by Union Food Minister Sharad Yadav despite bureaucratic resistance which cavilled at the minister's insistence that the World Food Programme be the agency advising on drought-alleviation strategies.

Sources in the food ministry say the plan is to link up with the World Food Programme and provide supplementary nutrition to children below six and lactating and pregnant mothers.

The World Food Programme will provide Indiamix, a fortified blended food produced locally and fortified with essential vitamins and minerals, through Anganwadi centres and through food distribution strategies.

Those children who live too far away to attend Anganwadi centres or schools will be organised by asking older women in the village to take care of the children and paid through food incentives. Food for Work programmes will include watershed management and new water harvesting schemes.

The community-operated grain banks, with a 3-tier management system