rediff.com: Drought situation serious: FM

Admitting that the drought situation in the country was "serious", Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Tuesday announced the setting up of a special task force by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to carry out relief work on a war footing.

The task force to be headed by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani will have a four-point agenda to deal with the grave situation, Singh told Rajya Sabha during zero hour when members cutting across party lines demanded immediate steps to tackle severe drought and floods in the country.

Singh said the four-point agenda would be to ensure proper water management, nutrition of people in affected areas, providing employment and creation of assets.

Besides Advani, the special task force would comprise union ministers of finance, agriculture, food and civil supplies and rural development.

Singh said the government had prepared a contingency plan as early as July 18 when there were signs of drought and the situation was becoming worse with the passage of every day without rains.

The states where the situation was serious because of the failure of monsoon are Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, Singh said, adding he already had a meeting with chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Along with drought, the country was facing floods in states like Assam and Bihar, Singh said, adding that some areas in Bihar had been hit because of overflowing rivers in Nepal.

To the demand of Opposition leader Manmohan Singh that the Centre should come out with adequate financial assistance for Assam which was not only facing unprecedented floods but a financial crisis, the finance minister said he was aware of the difficult situation there.

Announcing the constitution of a committee under his chairmanship to improve the financial health of states, Singh said the finance minister of Assam is also a member of the committee which would submit its recommendations by September 30.

The issue of drought was raised by TDP member Alladi Rajkumar, who wanted the the Centre to release Rs 6.5 billion besides 1 million tonnes of foodgrains. He sought immediate intervention of the prime minister to deal with the grave drought situation in the state.



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