Enough food stocks but need to tackle drought:PM

With many parts of the country facing drought-like situation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today gave an assurance that the country has "adequate food stocks and there is no cause for concern", but called for efforts to mitigate rural distress arising from drought.

"We had record production and procurement of foodgrains in both 2007-08 and 2008-09. We thus have adequate food stocks and there is no cause for concern. I have no doubt that we will tackle the (drought) situation effectively and resolutely.

"Even then, utmost care ought to be taken to deal with scarcity of fodder and drinking water," the Prime Minister said while addressing a conference of state rural development and panchayti raj ministers here. He added that though rains over the past week augur well for kharif crops and have brought cheer to farmers, "most areas of the country will probably have deficient rainfall and we should redouble our efforts to mitigate rural distress arising from drought".

Singh said that the UPA government's flagship programme NREGA "has put a floor on rural poverty and affords a measure of protection against natural calamities or market-induced vulnerability".