Central team visits Kalahandi drought-affected areas

An inter-ministerial team from the Centre today visited the drought-affected areas at Bhawanipatna, Narla and Kesinga blocks in Odisha's Kalahandi district, official sources said today.
The four-member central team, led by K S Srinivasan, Joint Secretary to the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, interacted with farmers and villagers to take stock of the extent of the crisis.
Later, Srinivasan, the team leader, expressed concern over the widespread damages to crops, including paddy, due to the drought.
Yesterday evening the team held meetings with the collector and district-level officials.
The drought, triggered mostly by monsoon failure, has affected 1,642 villages spread over 234 gram panchayats out of a total 2,248 villages in Kalahandi district, according an assessment by the state agriculture department.

The agriculture department assessment revealed that 49,304 hectors of paddy land and 21,743 hectors of non-paddy land had been adversely affected due to erratic monsoon and moisture stress condition.