People in five drought-hit districts of B’khand get relief

ALLAHABAD : Residents in at least five districts of Uttar Pradesh drought-prone Bundelkhand region have started receiving relief in the form of food material and other aid, a senior official of the state government said.

“The district magistrates of Mahoba, Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Lalitpur and Jhansi have been directed to immediately provide food material to the residents of drought-hit areas in these districts. Each of the affected families would be getting 15 kgs of wheat flour, five kgs gram flour, three litre mustard oil, one kg pure ghee, one kg iodized salt and one kg pack of milk powder for every family having children.

This ration is being supplied in a proper packet so as to maintain the quality of food. This ration stock is for 15 days and would be replenished after 15 days,” said Sanjay Kumar, secretary and relief commissioner. Kumar said the DMs would have to ensure that only good quality food grain is purchased for distribution among drought-hit families.

The district disaster relief committee would be making the purchase from the funds approved by the UP government.

The DMs have also been directed to maintain a list of food package distribution and the families who received these packs.

Their contact numbers should also be available in the list.

“As many as 48 villages in Tahrauli tehsil in Jhansi, 12 villages in Talbehat tehsil in Lalilitpur, 27 villages in Jhansi tehsil in

Jhansi, besides, Garautha and Mauranipur tehsils in Jhansi, Mahoba, Kulpahad and Charkhari tehsils in Mahoba, Ghoraval, Duddhi etc tehsils in Sonbhadra etc have been declared drought-hit,” he informed.

Kumar said the district magistrates of these districts have also been directed to daily update his office about the number of food packets distributed to affected families on email id.

In February this year the farmers whose crops were damaged by hailstorm in at least four districts of Uttar Pradesh’s drought-prone Bundelkhand region on February 11 and 12 were also give speedy compensation.

Around Rs 52.50 crore was approved for relief to farmers in Banda, Mahoba, Jhansi and Lalitpur on the directives of chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

As much as 33% of the crop was destroyed in 196 villages of Banda, Mahoba, Jhansi and Lalitpur, directly affecting 55,000 farmers after the hailstorm,

Farmers in 59 villages of Banda, 78 villages of Mahoba, 21 villages of Jhansi and 38 villages of Lalitpur suffered the maximum losses.

Therefore, to compensate for their (farmers’) loss, Rs 20 crore was approved for Mahoba, Rs 15 crore for Lalitpur, Rs 10 crore for Banda and Rs 7.50 crore for Jhansi.