Karna govt forms four cabinet sub-committees on drought

: The Karnataka government Friday said it has decided to constitute four cabinet sub-committees of senior ministers for each revenue division to ensure effective implementation of drought mitigation measures.

The state government has notified 100 taluks of 24 districts as drought affected.

"To ensure effective implementation of drought mitigation measures and to review drought mitigation works taken up by Deputy Commissioners, the government will constitute four cabinet sub-committees, comprising senior ministers, for each revenue division," Revenue Minister R V Deshpande said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said a senior officerof the rank of secretary or principal secretary would work as the coordinating officer in the cabinet sub-committees.

The committees would tour drought affected districtsand hold meetings with all concerned and guide the Deputy Commissioners in drought relief and mitigation measures, the minister added.

Noting that the dry spell was continuing in the state, 'reeling under 49 per cent rain deficiency' in the rabi season, he said that the government's response to mitigate the impact of drought has been mainly onemployment generation, provision of drinking water and fodderavailability.

He said sufficient funds -- Rs 220 crore -- was availablewith Deputy Commissioners to take updrought mitigation works.

Apart from this, Rs 50 lakh (unitedfund) has been approved from the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj department to each droughtaffected taluk to take up drinking water related works, the minister said.

As of now drinking water was being supplied through tankers to 197 villages in 13 districts, officials said, adding that the situation was likely to exacerbate in the coming days and steps were being taken to respond to it.

Referring to drought and floods during the Kharif season of 2018, Deshpande said a 10 member inter-ministerialcentral team extensively toured 13 drought affected districtsfrom November 17 to 19.

"The team is expected to submit its report bythe end of this month and we are confident that the statewill receive funds through NDRF in a short time," the minister said.

Deshpande also said as it was found that fodderwas going to neighbouring states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala,Andhra Pradesh Maharashtra and Goa,the cabinet sub-committeerecently decided to ban movement of fodder to other statesup to May 31, 2019.

The government anticipates a "problem" in the Rabi season also as the sowing acreage has fallen by about eight lakhhectares, compared to last year.

Officials said that the targeted area for rabi sowing was 31.80 lakh hectares. TillNovember 16, sowing was done in 20.76 lakh hectares against the normal 26.19lakh hectares.

Last year during the same period (Nov 16) sowing was completed in 28.22 lakh hectares, they said.

Deshpande also noted that the revenue department had conducted a 'File disposal week' from November 12-18, during which more than 2.56 lakh files were cleared.

"Infuture also, we will try to evolve different strategies toclear about 7,97,258 files that are pending as on November 19," he said.