Drought Mission to submit its report by next week

The 'Drought Mission' set up by the Mamata Banerjee government would submit its report before the Chief Minister as well as State Planning Board by next week for utilisation of World Bank funds worth Rs 1,380 crore. "The report prepared will be sent to the Department of Agriculture followed by fisheries and horticulture for observation before submitting it to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and State Planning Board by the end of this month," Water Resources Investigation and Development Minister Soumen Mahapatra said.

The report would contain recommendations of long and short term strategies for combating drought, the minister said, adding the focus would be on surface water management, accelerated rain water harvest and conservation, de-siltation programme and ground water management. Recommendations of the report would be implemented mainly with the help of World Bank's long-term soft loan worth Rs 1,380 crore in six years, besides departmental budgetary allocation and Centre's assistance.