With the Centre’s drought review team starting its tour of 13 drought-affected districts in Karnataka, the State government has urged the team to understand the impact of rainfall deficiency on agriculture rather than arriving at a conclusion looking at the standing crops.
Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda told presspersons here that it was “a situation of green drought” in many parts of Karnataka. “Some crops were lost soon after sowing and in other cases, there is standing crop due to intermittent rainfall. However, the yield from the crop has been severely reduced and there is no scope for recovery,” he said, after briefing the team of Central officials that will tour districts till Sunday to assess the drought effects.
“We have urged the team for an independent understanding and assessment as it is a different situation. We will meet the team again on Monday after they return from their assessment,” said the Minister
While the State is expecting a compensation of around ₹4,860 crore from the Centre, it has estimated the losses in agriculture to be ₹30,432 crore. The total rainfall deficiency in the State is 28%.
The 10-member inter-ministerial Central team, led by Joint Secretary of Agriculture department Ajit Kumar Sahu, will be touring Belagavi, Vijayapura, Bagalkote, Dharwad, Gadag, Koppal, Ballari, Vijayanagar, Chickballapura, Tumakuru, Chitradurga, Davangere, and Bengaluru Rural districts till Sunday. Senior government officials and scientists from agricultural universities will also be touring with the team.
Discrepancies in data flagged
Mr. Byre Gowda said that the team has been comprehensively briefed about the drought situation, farmers’ problem, economy, crop losses, and total affected area with the ground report. On certain discrepancies in rainfall data between the State and the IMD, the Minister said: “Karnataka has 6,500 automated telemetric stations installed at every panchayat level that no other State can boast of. It is accurate and reliable since there is no manual intervention.”
Karnataka has also flagged the discrepancy in the number of small and marginal farmers between between the State and the Centre. “The Centre has data of 2015. We have highlighted that the numbers have increased due to further fragmentation as families have grown and the average area has also shrunk.”
No delay
In a rebuff to the Opposition parties that the Siddaramaiah-led government had been delaying on drought management, Mr. Byre Gowda said that though there are more than 10 States that have reported rainfall deficiency, Karnataka is the first State to approach the Centre. “The Cabinet approved the drought memorandum on September 22 and submitted the petition online to the Centre on the same day. We have sought appointment with Union Agriculture and Home Ministers, which, however, has not been given yet.”
When asked if the State was confident of getting a fair deal from the Centre, Mr. Byre Gowda said: “We are doing our work and we have conformed to all the guidelines set by the Centre. We are hopeful that we will get our fair share. I do not want to politicise the issue that can affect the people.”
More drought-hit taluks could be declared
While 195 taluks in the State have been declared drought affected, 15 more taluks could be added to the list. “Preliminary assessment show that 15 out of the 41 remaining taluks are also eligible to be declared drought affected as per the Union government’s guidelines,” Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said on Thursday.
The Cabinet sub-committee will meet on October 9 where a decision on conducting the ground survey again in these taluks would be taken.” Further, in 34 taluks declared as moderate drought hit, another survey would be taken up if conditions deteriorate, he added.
