All-party meeting resolves to declare Bihar drought-hit

All political parties of Bihar today resolved to declare the state as drought hit and sought adequate financial help from the Centre to meet the crisis. The all-party meeting held here today to discuss the issue of drought also decided to send a joint memorandum to the Centre in this regard. Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said the decisions taken by the representatives of all political parties to meet the crisis would be put up at the special cabinet meeting scheduled tomorrow for its approval. However, visualising the situation that was in store, the state government had already initiated certain steps to mitigate the sufferings of farmers. Claiming Bihar to be the first state to provide diesel subsidy to its farmers for irrigation purpose, the Chief Minister said they would also be provided with seed subsidy to purchase seeds. The state government also plans to ensure uninterrupted power supply in the rural areas for at least seven hours so that the farmers owning electric pumps could irrigate their fields. It was for this purpose the state had sought 300 megawatts of additional power from the Centre but the Centre could agree to provide only 31 megawatts of additional power to it so far. Similarly, in response to the demand of Rs 450 crore for providing diesel subsidy, the Centre had sanctioned only Rs 117 crore so far. Calling the Centre’s aid of Rs 117 to be just a drop in the ocean , Nitish said the Centre should understand the enormity of the problem and then decide on the aid. Regretting the Centre’s response to tackle the Kosi flood disaster in the state last year, Nitish said the state’s demand of Rs 14,500 crore relief and rehabilitation package for the victims of Kosi deluge, referred by the Prime Minister as national calamity, was yet to be given. In view of our past experience with the centre to tackle disasters, we decided to go ahead with our own contingency plans to meet the crisis, the Chief Minister added. The state government had already formed a ‘Crisis Management Group’ under the Chief Secretary for day-to-day monitoring. The Chief Minister at his level had already held three review meetings with the Principal Secretaries of concerned departments like water resources, agriculture, energy, minor irrigation, animal husbandry etc. The ministers in-charge of different districts had also given their reports to the Chief Minister after holding regular meetings at their respective district headquarters to assess the enormity of drought.