Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

One-fifth of UP declared 'drought-hit'

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

With the monsoon continuing to elude Uttar Pradesh, the state government has decided to declare at least one-fifth of India's most populous state as "drought-hit."

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the state Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Mayawati.

Addresssing a press conference in Lucknow on Thursday, chief secretary D S Bagga said that 15 of the state's 70 districts have been declared as "drought-hit."

The fifteen districts include: Agra, Etah, Mathura, Chitrakoot, Banda, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Jhansi, Jalaun, Lalitpur, Rampur, Baghpat, Muzaffarnagar, Hardoi and Saharanpur.

"These are the districts where the crops have suffered more than 50 per cent damage," he said, adding , "as such, realisation of land revenue and irrigation and power dues have also been suspended for the time being."

While most of these districts are in the Bundelkhand region in southern UP, some from the eastern and the western part of the state are also to be included in the list.

Disillusioned by the continued dry spell, villagers in parts of UP had already begun to look for divine benevolence.

Back in the hinterland of the state, people are out to appease the rain God, by whatever means, be it by holding mass prayers or through yagnas. In parts of central UP, women have gone to the extent of ploughing the fields in the nude at night.

Unconfirmed reports from Etawah said, "women volunteered to strip themselves and plough their parched fields at the dead of the night in Chakrapur village of the Maheva development block in the district."

While pleading ignorance about the specific incident a senior official of the district admitted, "there is a common belief in the villages that Raja Janak (father of Lord Ram's wife Sita) and his wife had themselves carried out this ritual of ploughing the fields without anything on, when his kingdom was faced with a severe drought. The heavens then obliged them with the much-desired rain."

In keeping with the tradition, the practice was followed in several parts of Uttar Pradesh. And with the prospect of drought looming large over the state, village folk are willing to do anything and everything under the sun to appease Indra-Devta (rain-God).

Even around the state capital, large groups of people have organised yagnas for the same purpose. One of these was led by a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kaushal Kishore , who presided over a four-hour long fire ritual, hoping that the fire would shower the fields with rain. Similar reports were received from Farrukhabad, Kanpur and Rae Bareli and other drought affected areas of UP.

The chief secretary maintained, "We are keeping a day-to-day watch on the situation and if it does not rain over the next few days, perhaps more areas of the state would be declared drought-hit."

While sporadic rains have been witnessed in the state, only five districts in the eastern part -- Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Deoria, Balrampur and Chandauli -- have so far received normal rainfall.

Bagga maintained that the state has readied a contingency plan and is prepared to assist the people in fighting the drought conditions.

He said, "Large-scale repairs of defective tube-wells was currently being carried out in a time-bound manner for which an advance payment of Rs 340 million has been made to the state power corporation."

While pointing out that the dry spell had led to major drinking water crisis in as many as 56 districts, Bagga said, "Prompt identification of faulty hand-pumps followed by their swift repair or replacement was also being undertaken on a war-footing."

This declaration (of drought) has, however, not come as a surprise as most Opposition parties including Samajwadi Party and Congress as well as the ruling ally Bhartiya Janata Party had already formally urged the Mayawati-led coalition government to provide succour to the drought hit rural community in different parts of the state.

As against last year's kharif crop yield of 155 metric tons, the authorities had fixed a target of 1.7 million tons for the current season, but this is bound to get adversely affected by the drought.

Paddy sowing, already delayed by one month, is further affected by the dry spell which also caused considerable damage to the standing sugarcane crop.

ALSO READ:
More Money Headlines