Central team begins tour of drought-hit districts, meets CS

LUCKNOW: A 10-member central government team led by additional secretary Raghvendra Singh on Monday began tour of state’s 50 drought-hit districts to assess the crop losses. The state government has requested for a r 2057.79 crore compensation package.

Before beginning the two-day tour, the team members held a meeting with chief secretary Alok Ranjan to discuss the action plans prepared by various departments to provide relief to the droughthit farmers. The team will meet Ranjan again on December 3 after completion of the tour.

As per memorandum of the state government, Ranjan urged the delegation to get the amount of Rs 2057.79 crore approved as soon as possible for relief in drought hit districts of the state. He informed that the state government had declared 50 districts as drought affected. Information had been received of 33 percent or more agricultural loss in districts of Allahabad, Fatehpur, Chitrakoot, Banda, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Jhansi, Jalaun, Lalitpur, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Deoria, Kanpur Nagar, San Kabir Nagar, Mirzapur, Sonebhadra, Mau, Unnao, Balrampur and Ambedkar Nagar, which was according to the criteria set for compensation by the Union government.

Among those who attended the meeting included agriculture production commissioner Pravir Kumar, principal secretary, agriculture, Amit Mohan Prasad along with concerned principal secretaries and senior officials.