CHITRADURGA: Deputy Chief Minister Dr G Parameshwara on Saturday said that he has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare the drought situation faced by the farmers of the state as a ‘national disaster.’
Addressing the officials of the nine districts of the Bengaluru division review meeting chaired by Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, he said the current situation in the state is very serious. There were sparse rains in the state in June but all regions did not receive it. By the end of July, there was a deficit of more than 42 percent rainfall across the state. He said that only 15 percent of the sowing work has been done in the state.
In the nine districts, the normal rainfall till the end of July has been 141 mm instead of 223 mm. There has been a 37 percent deficiency. Only Bengaluru and Tumkur districts have had normal rainfall, while the remaining seven districts have faced rain deficit.
A total of Rs 54.45 crore is available in the PD account of the nine Deputy Commissioners of the Disaster Management Department. Tumkur has received Rs 11.58 crore, Kolar Rs 9.24 crore, Bangalore South Rs 8.7 crore, Bangalore Rural Rs 7.56 crore, Chitradurga Rs 4.35 crore, Chikkaballapur Rs 4.26 crore, Shivamogga Rs 2.41 crore, Davangere Rs 1.80 crore, Bangalore City Rs 1.1 crore are available for use, said the DCM.
The DCM gave instructions in the meeting to complete e-Pauti account by December-end. A total of 14,639,68 applications have been targeted under the e-Pauti scheme in the Bangalore division, out of which 304889 applications have been completed at the village administrative officer level.