Insufficient rainfall left several states drought hit. In order to provide adequate drought relief to these drought affected areas, Centre on Monday approved Rs 4000 crore as assistance from the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF).
While parts of Peninsular India were mostly affected due to the inclement weather, states from Northwest India and East India were also not spared. The seven states are part of the 18 affected by drought due to deficit monsoon this year. Maharashtra, MP, UP, Bihar, Odisha, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh are other states that witnessed drought condition due to inadequate Southwest Monsoon last year.
Under this approval, Rs 1177.59 crore will be released for drought-affected Rajasthan, Rs 1773.78 crore for Tamil Nadu, Rs 336.94 crore for Jharkhand, Rs 280.19 crore for Andhra Pradesh, Rs 332.57 crore for Assam, Rs 170.19 crore for Himachal Pradesh and Rs 16.02 crore for Nagaland. According to timesofindia, the decision to release this central assistance was taken in a meeting of the high-level committee (HLC), chaired by the Union home minister Rajnath Singh.
The decision to approve the relief was taken after examining the situation in drought-hit areas.
This is the second consecutive year when the country faced drought situation. The country is already witnessing one of the warmest winter seasons. The situation may further lead to farm distress if the states cannot cope with the deficit during the ongoing Rabi sowing season.
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