How many states have drought management cells, SC asks Centre

How many states have drought management cells and why no district-level disaster management authorities have been set up, the Supreme Court asked the Centre today.
A bench headed by Justice M B Lokur directed the Centre to apprise it of these details after submissions were made that several states in the country have no drought management cells and district disaster management authorities till now.
The bench, comprising Justice N V Ramana, also pulled up the Centre for not providing full details about the drought manual and drought management guidelines.
It suggested that the Centre should, with the help of satellite data, analyse the expected rainfall in the monsoon season. It should again analyse the data during and after the season, so that effective steps to tackle drought-like situations can be taken on time.

The bench is examining various aspects of relief given to drought-hit farmers during the hearing of a PIL seeking urgent implementation of guidelines for areas hit by natural calamity.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan appearing for petitioner NGO Swaraj Abhiyan said an independent commissioner should be appointed to look after the implementation of guidelines as it had been done by the apex court in the Right to Food matter.

He said that loans in the drought-hit areas should be restructured and short-term loans converted to term loans and long-term loans to help the farmers in distress.
"Out of the Rs 8.5 lakh crore of agricultural loan in the country, only Rs 4900 crore loan was restructured, while for corporates around Rs 3.5 lakh crore loan has been restructured," Bhushan said.

Bhusan concluded his arguments and the matter was posted for further hearing on April 6.
The apex court had yesterday expressed its concern on low compensation paid to calamity-hit farmers and observed that it was leading some of them to commit suicide.
The NGO, in its revised prayer, has sought a direction to Centre to abide by the provisions of MNREGA Act and use it for employment generation in drought-affected areas.
The PIL filed by the NGO has alleged that parts of 12 states of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Haryana and Chattisgarh were hit by drought and the authorities were not providing adequate relief.