Jharkhand

• 31 Oct 2022

226 Blocks of 22 Districts of Jharkhand Declared Drought-Hit

Why In News?

• On October 29, 2022, a meeting of the Disaster Management Authority chaired by Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren declared 226 blocks of 22 districts of the state as drought-hit on the basis of the ground truthing report (land assessment) of the state agriculture department.

Key Points

• In the meeting of the Disaster Management Authority, it has been decided to declare 226 blocks of 22 districts of the state as drought-hit and give Rs 3500 as advance to each drought-affected farmer.
• In this meeting, the Chief Minister informed that this decision of the government will benefit about 30 lakh farmer families of the state and this amount will be made available to all the affected farmer families of the blocks declared drought-hit soon.
• The Chief Minister said that the state government would spend about Rs 1200 crore in providing immediate drought relief amount to the farmer families affected by drought.
• In the meeting, after the instructions of the Chief Minister, it was decided that a separate proposal will be prepared for cooperation from the Government of India and a consensus will be reached on this matter in the cabinet meeting.
• It is worth mentioning that the Agriculture Department had made an assessment of the drought situation in Kharif in all the districts of the state after the order of the Chief Minister, in which the situation was found to be bad in 226 blocks in 22 districts. These districts have been found to conform to all the standards of drought.
• Based on the report of the team of senior officials of the Agriculture Department, these districts were found to be dry and the condition of 154 blocks has been described as more dangerous. Partial drought conditions have been found in 72 blocks, where the crop is expected to suffer more than 50 percent damage, it has been categorized as severe damage.