K’taka seeks drought relief aid from Centre

• Rs 2,434 crore aid sought

Bengaluru: The state government has sought drought relief aid of Rs 2,434-crore from the National Disaster Response Fund of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to compensate for the crop losses in drought-hit districts on Monday.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the state’s Revenue Minister R V Deshpande states that the southwest monsoon has been very erratic. The prolonged dry spell in north and south interior Karnataka during August and September has resulted in huge agricultural and horticulture crop losses.

The state has estimated the losses incurred due to drought situation in 100 sub-districts (taluks) in 24 of the state’s 30 districts at Rs 16,500-crore and has requested the central government for a relief of Rs 2,434-crore.

Mr Deshpande further states in the letter that a total of 26.18 lakh hectares of agricultural area and 1.94 lakh hectares of horticulture area have suffered greater than 33 per cent crop loss with an estimated loss of more than Rs 16,500-crore.

“I request you to depute an inter-ministerial central team for first-hand assessment of large scale agriculture and horticulture crop losses,” Deshpande wrote in his letter to the Union Agriculture Minister. The letter was also sent to Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.

Depleting ground water levels

According to the letter, with the depleting ground water levels, the state is supplying drinking water to 159 villages and has dug 203 private bore-wells to make drinking water available in the rural areas, and few of the urban areas facing water shortage.

Fodder shortage

In the letter the minister also states that the state is anticipating a fodder shortage in the coming days, with a total livestock of 75.31 lakh cattle and 114.35 lakh fodder dependent animals living in the 100 drought-affected sub-districts of the state. Therefore, it has distributed 8.11 lakh fodder seed kits to overcome the shortage.

SDRF Funds released

The letter also mentioned that a total of Rs 50-crore worth funds were released from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF), providing Rs 50-lakh to each of the drought-hit sub-districts to carry out immediate relief measures such as augmenting existing water supply scheme and drilling new bore wells.