Assam drought: 8 lakh families face starvation
The government’s efforts to provide 10 litre of free diesel to each farm family to help them run pumpsets to lift water from rivers and underground sources has hardly been able to make an impact. Only about 34,800 families have so far received free diesel, Brahma admitted. The scheme has so far covered only about 9,340 hectare of land. - Samudra Kashyap
Samudra Gupta Kashyap
Posted online: Friday, August 18, 2006
GUWAHATI, AUGUST 17:The rainfall deficit in Assam has turned into an unprecedented drought over the last three months, pushing over eight lakh farm families in 21 of Assam’s 25 districts to the verge of starvation. The state itself is heading for a shortage of rice with the kharif crop failing to take off in most of the state.
“Over eight lakh families have been directly affected by the drought. Our efforts to help them draw water from various sources has proved too little,” admitted state Agriculture Minister Pramila Rani Brahma. She said over 4.95 lakh hectare of land, which would otherwise have been under sali, the most important kharif paddy crop in the state, have been severely affected by the drought.
The state’s target of producing 40 lakh metric tonne of rice during the current year now looks totally impossible. “I don’t think we will be able to achieve the target of 40 lakh MT of rice. Paddy has its own ripening and maturity stages, even rains can’t influence that now,” Brahma told The Indian Express here today. With the monsoon turning out to be a failure, it would be impossible to produce even quarter of that quantity, Agriculture Department officials added.
Sowing of paddy, which would normally have been harvested in December, was supposed to have taken place in June followed by the transplantation in July. But, farmers in the state have missed the main paddy season altogether. Barpeta, Morigaon, Nagaon, Sonitpur, Nalbari and Kamrup are among the worst affected districts.
The government’s efforts to provide 10 litre of free diesel to each farm family to help them run pumpsets to lift water from rivers and underground sources has hardly been able to make an impact. Only about 34,800 families have so far received free diesel, Brahma admitted. The scheme has so far covered only about 9,340 hectare of land.
While there are reports of large-scale anomalies in the distribution of diesel, what has emerged as a bigger problem is the failure of a large number of irrigation schemes in which the government invested huge sums over the years.
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The author can be reached at samudra.gupta.kashyap@expressindia.com.
Source: Indian Express