The Centre has not only scheduled a string of meetings with chief ministers and agricultural secretaries but also constituted a crisis-management GoM.
Amid growing fear of the worst drought in independent India, the Centre has not only scheduled a string of meetings with chief ministers and agricultural secretaries for the next week but also constituted a crisis-management group of ministers (GoM) to oversee matters on a day-to-day basis.
The decision was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by PM Manmohan Singh and participated by, among others, Vijay Kelkar, chairman of the 13th finance commission, and planning commission secretary Sudha Pillai.
Sources said finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will head the GoM, which will have agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, railway minister Mamata Banerjee, petroleum minister Murli Deora and power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde as members.
The main task of the GoM would be to minimise the impact of drought on food prices and help farmers.
Meanwhile, planning commission member Abhijit Sen expects more and more districts to be declared drought-hit in the coming days. “Some parts of Andhra are badly hit and once such big states start declaring districts as drought-hit, the magnitude of the problem will increase in multiples,” he said. He expects the growth rate to be hit by 0.7% to 1%, taking it below 6%.
Sen said drought will hit the Kharif and Rabi crops and loss in farm income will affect future investment. “It is important that the government keeps credit lines open for farmers and provides short-duration seeds for the Rabi season,” he said.
June, the traditional month of sowing, saw almost no such activity as rainfall was way below normal. Sowing resumed in July when rainfall increased. “Thus, harvesting would also be late, eating into the Rabi season,” Sen said.
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