Lucknow, July 25 (ANI): The Uttar Pradesh Government will declare 20 districts in the state as drought-hit.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting presided over by Chief Secretary A K Gupta on Friday night.

Officials examined the current situation in the state as more than half the area of Uttar Pradesh reeling under scanty rainfall. They later decided to declare 20 of the 71 districts in the state as drought-hit.

The districts which have been identified as drought-hit are Deoria, Ambedkarnagar, Jaunpur, Mau, Unnao, Ballia, Sant Kabirnagar, Basti, Hardoi, Sultanpur, Fatehpur, Rai Barely, Ghazipur, Kannauj, Bareilly, Manpuri, Farrukhabad, Kanpur Dehat, Kanshiramnagar and Hathras.

On Friday, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said that a weak and erratic monsoon in various parts of the country may adversely affect the paddy crop, and added that the government is drawing a contingency plan to deal with the situation.

“Monsoon, this year, has been weak and erratic in its progress and distribution resulting in late sowing of crops. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Assam, Manipur and parts of some other states are likely to be affected by the deficient rainfall,” he said.

As on July 23, Pawar said, there is a 19 per cent deficiency of rainfall in the country as a whole, with the North-West region deficient by 38 per cent and the North East region by 43 per cent.

He, however, said the situation has improved in most parts of the country except the North-West, North-East regions, UP and Bihar. (ANI)