Govt admits drought, but says no need to panic

The Centre today said drought had “set in” but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked the chief ministers not to panic, as the government had enough experience in handling a crisis of this sort.

“There is no need to panic, as we have a better understanding of how to handle a crisis like the drought,” the prime minister said at a special session on drought at the chief ministers’ meeting on internal security. The government has decided to hold regular meetings of group of ministers (GoM) to review the situation.

“The GoM will meet on a regular basis and the ground reality was that the drought has set in,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was quoted as saying in an official statement.

At the same time, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar asked states to start relief operations in the drought-affected districts and clamp on hoarders to ensure prices do not shoot up, while describing the year as a difficult one for both farmers and consumers.

“We have faced problems like this before and now there is much greater elbow room to deal with this drought than in the past. There is adequate wheat and rice stocks in our godowns. And what is more, this time we have in place livelihood programmes like NREGA and RKVY,” the prime minister said.

By working collectively, he said, pragmatic and practical solutions could be found and cautioned against sapping the nation’s self-confidence.

The finance minister expressed similar sentiment. “Let us not press the panic button, we need to create confidence that the situation can be overcome,” Mukherjee said.

While the Centre asserted the situation could be handled effectively, chief ministers sought additional funds to deal with the situation, according to the statement.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has asked for a Rs 35,000-crore special package after declaring 26 out of 38 districts of the state as “drought-affected”, while Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan sought relief worth more than Rs 11,000 crore to combat drought in his state.

Chavan’s demand also includes Rs 7,000 crore for a renewed package for the drought-prone regions of Vidharbha even after the PM had announced a special relief scheme for this suicide-belt of Maharashtra.

The country as a whole has witnessed a rainfall deficiency of 29 per cent as on today and the number of districts reeling under drought or drought-like condition has gone up to 207.

Nine states — Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Nagaland, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh — have declared drought, partly or wholly, Pawar said and urged the chief ministers to start relief operations immediately.

“Continuation of the prevailing climatic conditions is likely to affect production... Thereby, negatively impacting foodgrain availability,” he said.

He said poor rains were having an impact on rates of food articles, mainly pulses and sugar, and also blamed speculation and hoarding for the price rise. Observing that only 18 states and Union Territories have imposed stock limits on essential items, he said “remaining states must also take necessary steps in this regard”.

As several states have raised their demands for more money to combat the drought situation, the Congress will convene a special meeting of its Working Committee on August 19.