Western & central Uttar Pradesh stare at drought

Too little, too late! This sums up the tepid response of the Uttar Pradesh government towards the spectre of drought in several districts.

In tune with the forecast of India Meteorological Department (IMD) earlier this year about below-normal monsoon in India, rainfall activity has been low in the state.

The state farmers have been hit by both drought and floods. While rainfall had been missing when most needed, large swathes of land, especially in the terai region were inundated due to heavy rainfall in the Himalayan region and Nepal.

Uttar Pradesh chief Secretary Alok Ranjan on Monday directed officials to identify districts, which had received less than 50 per cent rainfall, so that they could be declared drought-hit.

The state government will hold in abeyance, land revenue collection in drought-affected districts till March 31, 2015. The state is seeking central funds for relief in the drought-hit districts.

“This exercise should have been started much earlier so that the affected farmers were provided with relief when most needed,” Kisan Jagriti Manch president Sudhir Panwar told Business Standard.

He said several farmers irrigate their fields with diesel pumpsets when rain fails, with the result that their crop is not lost and they do not qualify for any compensation.

Besides, there are chances that no district would qualify to be declared drought-hit in the state, if the long-term average was considered, though several western and central Uttar Pradesh districts have been severely rainfall-deficient.

These include Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Agra, Etawah, Mainpuri, Kanpur, among others.

While rainfall activity had been low during sowing, when it is most needed, sporadic rainfall at other times made up for the loss, inflating the long-term average.

Agriculture supports over 50 per cent of the state’s population.