18 Gujarat villages declared 'scarcity-hit'

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As many as 18 villages in the parched Saurashtra region of Gujarat were today declared as 'scarcity-hit' by the state government.
Among them, half a dozen villages fall under Chotila taluka of Surendranagar district. The rest are in Vinchhiya taluka of Rajkot district, an official release said here.
The villages were declared 'scarcity-hit' due to a shortage of water caused by deficient rainfall in the region during the last monsoon, it said.
Revenue Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama today presided over a high-level meeting where he assessed the scarcity situation in Gujarat.
During the meeting, the government decided to provide cattle feed (grass) at a subsidised rate of just Rs 2 per kg in 566 villages, including those declared scarcity-affected, in Saurashtra and Kutch regions, said the release.

Chudasama said the administration is fully prepared to deal with any situation arising out of water scarcity. The state currently has a stock of around 4.11 crore kg of grass.

As many as 70 villages and 28 other localities across Gujarat have been provided water through tankers.
Small, medium and large dams in Gujarat, numbering 204, currently have 12,171 million cubic meters of water in them, which is 57.85 per cent of their actual storage capacity. These include the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada river, the release said.
The situation is much better than the previous year, when the water storage around this time was 42 per cent, it added.