Thaindian News

Kolkata, Aug 16 (IANS) The West Bengal government Monday identified 11 of the state’s 18 districts as drought-hit, but ruled out any impending food crisis.
Announcing the decision after a high-level meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at the state secretariat Writers’ Buildings here, Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said these districts - Purulia, Bankura, Murshidabad, Birbhum, Burdwan, Hooghly, West Midnapore, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Nadia and Malda -have received 30 percent less rainfall this year.

“We are giving total Rs.50 crore to these districts,” Dasgupta said. The fund is to be used for repairing and redigging of tubewells and arranging of pumpsets.

The chief minister is writing to union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to send a central team for assessing the situation in the 11 districts, he said.

Agriculture Minister Naren De said paddy production in the state was 100 lakh tonnes last year, but had gone down by 27 lakh tonnes this year, due to drought.

Apart from Bhattacharjee, Dasgupta and De, Food Minister Paresh Adhikary and Irrigation Minister Subhas Naskar attended the meeting.

De said the state government expected 43.79 lakh hectares to be under kharif crop but due to less rainfall, paddy could not be grown in around 11 lakh hectares cultivated this year.

Out of this 11 lakh hectares, the state government is planning to grow alternative crops on six lakh hectares.

Asked whether crop loss would lead to food crisis, Dasgupta replied: “No. We have enough reserve. There is no fear of food crisis.”

He also said stern action would be taken against anybody trying to hoard or artificially increase prices.

Dasgupta said the chief minister is writing another letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting him to expedite the process of disbursing Rs.1,400 crore to the state under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to generate more employment in the rural sector.