CHENNAI: While the Centre is yet to respond to the demand for assistance to the tune of Rs 22,573 crore for restoration and reconstruction work in the aftermath of the cyclone Vardah, the Tamil Nadu government on Monday approached the Union with another request, this time for a grant of Rs 39,565 crore for drought relief measures in the districts reeling under severe water shortage.
An officials’ delegation from Tamil Nadu including Commissioner of Revenue Administration K Satyagopal and Revenue Secretary B Chandra Mohan handed over the memorandum that contained detailed information about the impact of the drought in all 32 districts and also a letter from Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, to the office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A copy of the letter was also handed over to union agriculture secretary SK Pattanayak.
“Losses to the standing crops including paddy and horticultural crops, drinking water requirements to be met due to drought, focus on animal husbandry including fodder for cattle stock, fund requirement for permanent works relating to improvement of water resources, need for employment generation programmes to protect livelihood of agricultural labourers and requirements for wild animals during the drought period are among the key areas dealt with in the memorandum,” official sources told Express.
In the letter, the Chief Minister urged the Prime Minister to release ‘on account’ payment of Rs 1,000 crore from the National Disaster Relief Fund to take up immediate relief and rehabilitation measures.
“I also urge you to depute a Central team to study the extensive damage caused to agricultural crops and to take stock of the drinking water scarcity in the State,” Panneerselvam said in the letter.
Pointing out how the disasters including floods and cyclones in the two consecutive years had depleted the funds available with the State Disaster Response Fund, Panneerselvam said Tamil Nadu “is in urgent need of assistance from the NDRF to take immediate relief and rehabilitation measures”.
“Of the 16,682 revenue villages in the State, 13,305 villages have been identified as drought-affected. Ground truthing exercise carried out in 1,564 villages revealed that in 87 per cent of the areas, the extent of damage is estimated to be more than 50 per cent, indicating the severity of the drought in majority of the villages,” the Chief Minister said, and added that the situation was likely to worsen in the ensuing months as the northeast monsoon had already come to an end.
The State has received only 168.3 mm of rainfall during northeast monsoon as against the normal 440.4 mm - a deficit of 62 per cent. This followed the southwest monsoon that recorded a deficit of 20 per cent. This consecutive underwhelming performance and failure have had an impact on water availability in the State.
Explaining the poor storage in 15 major irrigation reservoirs, Panneerselvam said that as against total capacity of 198.384 tmcft, the water available as on December 31 was only 25.742 tmcft.
To put this in perspective, this is only 13 per cent of the storage recorded on the same day a year ago - 126.233 tmcft. Similarly, the combined storage in the four drinking water reservoirs which cater to the needs of Chennai was only 1.966 tmcft as on December 31, as compared to 10.339 tmcft at the same time in 2015.
The two cyclonic storms Nada and Vardah were expected to bring widespread rain. However, while Nada ended in a whimper, Vardah was a windstorm which left behind a trail of extreme destruction in three districts. It, however, did not bring any showers and the rainfall was much below predicted levels.
All 32 districts have recorded scanty or deficient rainfall, with the shortage ranging from 35 to 81 per cent.
Taking into consideration the prevailing situation in the State and after satisfying the criterion in revised Manual for Drought Management 2016, the State was declared as drought-affected on January 10.