Guj govt declares 527 villages as partially scarcity-hit

Gujarat Government today declared 527 villages from the parched Saurashtra region as partially scarcity-hit owing to the deficient rainfall in the last monsoon season.
The announcement was made by state Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, who heads a sub-committee of ministers for the assessment of scarcity situation in the state.
"Out of these 527 villages declared as partially scarcity-hit, 157 are from Rajkot district, 288 from Jamnagar district and 82 from Devbhumi-Dwarka district," Chudasama said after the meeting, which was also attended by Finance Minister Saurabh Patel and Agriculture Minister Babu Bokhiria.
The minister assured that the state government will take all the necessary steps to provide drinking water in these villages. He also assured that adequate amount of cattle-fodder will be provided in these villages.

"To ease the water crisis in these villages, our Water Supply Board will recharge as well as build new hand-pumps and bore-wells without charging anything from the villagers," Chudasama said.