State to be declared drought affected
Imphal, June 20: With the quantity of rainfall recorded in Manipur midway to June not enough for agricultural activities, the State Government has prepared an Action Plan to combat the prevailing drought-like situation.
The Government is also likely to announce the State drought-affected very soon.
A meeting of the State Cabinet held today with Chief Minister in the chair seriously deliberated on the issue and formulated an Action Plan in this regard.
During the meeting, Disaster Management has also been entrusted to take up necessary measures in connection with declaring Manipur a drought hit State.
According to a senior Cabinet Minister, around Rs 5.11 crores would be spent on implementing the Action Plan which include preparing nursery over 1000 hectares at the estimated cost of Rs 27,000 per hectare.
A sum of Rs 2.70 crores which would be set aside for purpose of preparing the nursery and the task would be given to farmers and the nursery thus prepared would be distributed among the farmers free of cost by the Agriculture Department.
To irrigate the parched paddy fields from rivers, Agriculture Department would also be spending Rs 84 lakhs in procuring 200 water pumps of 7 horse power capacity, Rs 32 lakhs on procuring another 100 water pump sets of 5 horse power capacity.
Around 200 temporary dams would also be constructed ensure lifting the water from the rivers at an estimated cost of Rs 20,000 each.
On top of this, the Cabinet has also approved sanctioning of another Rs 15 lakhs as contingency fund.
The senior Minister further informed that the total estimated amount for all these activities comes to around Rs 4.41 crores.
Initially the Agriculture Department would provide the required amount and the same would be refunded by the Govt after the end of the Assembly session.
The Minister conveyed that out of the total 150 RLI schemes under the Minor Irrigation Department, around 60 are still functional.
To make some of these defunct schemes functional again, the Cabinet has also approved sanctioning of Rs 1.5 crores to the Minor Irrigation.
The Government is really concerned about the present drought like situation and the Action Plan would implemented within a week's time, the senior Cabinet Minister said, adding that side by side the State Government would also approach the Centre for necessary assistance in this regard.
It is said that the normal rainfall recorded in the State upto June every year is around 739.50 millilitre.
But this year only around 475 millilitres has been recorded.
This shows that rainfall is short by 58 percent this time when the fact is that a place can be declared drought affected the shortage of rainfall is 25 percent.
So the present situation in Manipur warrant declaration of drought affected.
Today's Cabinet meeting also decided that the DPC currently being held for recruitment of drivers in the Police Department should be clubbed together with the DPC for recruiting another 608 drivers.
Apart from approving handing over the land of the Central Library and the Social Welfare located at Keishampat to the Governor, the Cabinet meeting decided to entrust the Chief Secretary for taking up necessary measures in allotment of suitable sites to Central Library and Social Welfare.
Source: The Sangai Express
The Government is also likely to announce the State drought-affected very soon.
A meeting of the State Cabinet held today with Chief Minister in the chair seriously deliberated on the issue and formulated an Action Plan in this regard.
During the meeting, Disaster Management has also been entrusted to take up necessary measures in connection with declaring Manipur a drought hit State.
According to a senior Cabinet Minister, around Rs 5.11 crores would be spent on implementing the Action Plan which include preparing nursery over 1000 hectares at the estimated cost of Rs 27,000 per hectare.
A sum of Rs 2.70 crores which would be set aside for purpose of preparing the nursery and the task would be given to farmers and the nursery thus prepared would be distributed among the farmers free of cost by the Agriculture Department.
To irrigate the parched paddy fields from rivers, Agriculture Department would also be spending Rs 84 lakhs in procuring 200 water pumps of 7 horse power capacity, Rs 32 lakhs on procuring another 100 water pump sets of 5 horse power capacity.
Around 200 temporary dams would also be constructed ensure lifting the water from the rivers at an estimated cost of Rs 20,000 each.
On top of this, the Cabinet has also approved sanctioning of another Rs 15 lakhs as contingency fund.
The senior Minister further informed that the total estimated amount for all these activities comes to around Rs 4.41 crores.
Initially the Agriculture Department would provide the required amount and the same would be refunded by the Govt after the end of the Assembly session.
The Minister conveyed that out of the total 150 RLI schemes under the Minor Irrigation Department, around 60 are still functional.
To make some of these defunct schemes functional again, the Cabinet has also approved sanctioning of Rs 1.5 crores to the Minor Irrigation.
The Government is really concerned about the present drought like situation and the Action Plan would implemented within a week's time, the senior Cabinet Minister said, adding that side by side the State Government would also approach the Centre for necessary assistance in this regard.
It is said that the normal rainfall recorded in the State upto June every year is around 739.50 millilitre.
But this year only around 475 millilitres has been recorded.
This shows that rainfall is short by 58 percent this time when the fact is that a place can be declared drought affected the shortage of rainfall is 25 percent.
So the present situation in Manipur warrant declaration of drought affected.
Today's Cabinet meeting also decided that the DPC currently being held for recruitment of drivers in the Police Department should be clubbed together with the DPC for recruiting another 608 drivers.
Apart from approving handing over the land of the Central Library and the Social Welfare located at Keishampat to the Governor, the Cabinet meeting decided to entrust the Chief Secretary for taking up necessary measures in allotment of suitable sites to Central Library and Social Welfare.
Source: The Sangai Express
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