Central team discusses drought with Chg Chief Secretary

A Central team camping in Chhattisgarh since the last two days to assess the drought situation today held a meeting with state Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand and discussed the dry spell and water scarcity.
The 11-member team, headed by joint secretary Union Ministry of Agriculture KS Srinivasan, had arrived here on November 21 and visited six drought-affected districts, an official said.
During the meeting today, Srinivasan said the team had visited Bemetara, Balodabazar, Dhamtari, Mahasamund, Durg, Rajnandgaon and Raipur districts after dividing in three groups and held talks with farmers, villagers and public representatives to take stock of the drought situation, he said.

Besides, the Central officials also gathered information pertaining to the execution of various schemes, including the Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme, MNREGA, ration distribution under PDS, paddy procurement in the respective areas, according to the official.
The chief secretary told the team that out of 150 tehsils in 27 districts in the state, 96 tehsils in 21 districts had been declared drought-hit in the Kharif year 2017-18, the official said.
The state government officials, who attended the meeting, told the Central officials that the tehsils visited by them were severely drought affected and the similar situation was also prevailing in other districts too.

According to state government officials, the Chhattisgarh government had demanded around Rs 4,400 crore from the Centre as drought-relief package.
Senior officials attended the meeting.