Waterproofing begins to fight weak monsoon

Centre to take up drought-relief measures with states

With a likely below-normal southwest monsoon threatening to derail the National Democratic Alliance government's economic revival agenda, the Centre is going all out to ward off any such eventuality. Officials in the know said the ministry of agriculture had convened a meeting of state agriculture commissioners and secretaries on June 17-18 to discuss their preparedness in the event of low rainfall or a drought.

The government has allowed states to immediately spend about Rs 900 crore to undertake appropriate measures to fight inadequate rainfall. The fund has been made available by allowing states to keep aside 10 per cent of their annual allocations under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana.

Officials said the government had near-finalised a Cabinet note to provide 50 per cent subsidy on diesel and restructure short-term crop loans. These notes will be presented for approval in the next few days. In its second-stage monsoon forecast released on Monday, the India Meteorological Department had said during the four-month southwest monsoon starting June, cumulative rainfall across the country was expected to be 93 per cent of the 50-year average since 1950, which was below normal.

This monsoon, except Northeastern states, all other parts of the country are expected to receive less-than-normal rainfall.

Officials said this time, the government had decided to do away with the long-drawn process of convening an inter-ministerial meeting to finalise relief and rehabilitation measures, after a state was declared drought-hit. "In 2009 and 2012, many of these steps were announced much after states had declared drought, and the relief came late," an official said. "But this time, we have made adequate funds available to states beforehand; if needed, we will provide more."

On restructuring loans, officials said the Department of Agriculture had already told the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) it was willing to share the burden incurred in providing interest-subvention on restricted short-term crop loans.

According to practice, RBI restructures short-term crop loans in drought-affected areas into long-term ones, but the interest charged on these is more than the base rate, which is more than 10 per cent. However, under the new proposal, interest on rescheduled loans will be charged at seven per cent; for timely payments, it will be four per cent.
COUNTERING THE DRY SPELL

• States empowered to spend over Rs 900 crore on drought relief
• Centre calls meet with state officials on June 18-19 on low-monsoon plan
• Will announce 50 per cent subsidy on diesel
• Restructured short-term crop loans to be charged interest at 7%
• More measures on the anvil, if needed