Nitish seeks Rs 23,071 crore from PM to combat drought

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday sent a letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking for an assistance of Rs 23,071 crore to meet the financial burden caused by the “unprecedented” drought situation prevailing in the state.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday sent a letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking for an assistance of Rs 23,071 crore to meet the financial burden caused by the “unprecedented” drought situation prevailing in the state.

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Before leaving for New Delhi to attend the Chief Ministers’ conference convened by the Prime Minister, Kumar’s letter which was released to the press said that the financial requirement to deal with drought situation could go up in case the other districts also received scanty rainfall in the coming weeks.

The state has already declared 26 out of its 38 districts as drought-hit, where around 1.26 crore families have been affected with paddy coverage showing an overall shortfall of 57 per cent.

With the coverage of other main crop maize also coming down to 27.4 per cent during the current sowing season due to scanty rains, the government might consider declaring the remaining 12 districts as drought-hit, the letter said.

“We are requesting the Centre for an allocation of Rs 23,071 crore for meeting the financial burden caused by the drought which is somewhat unprecedented in recent times,” the letter said.

Of the Rs 23,071 crore, Rs 10,845 crore has been sought for employment generation under NREGA and other schemes.