Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: In view of severe drought and spiraling prices of essential commodities, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has constituted a crisis team of Group of Ministers (GoM) for monitoring the situation on a day-to-day basis.
According to reports, the crisis team will be headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who had recently said that the country was facing the most severe drought in the recent times.
The main task of this crisis team will be to minimise the damaging impact of drought on food prices and to improve the condition of farmers most-affected by it.
The GoM will also try to devise ways to contain the damages done by the failure of the Kharif season.
Besides Pranab, the GoM comprises Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.
The delayed and deficient monsoon has severely affected the agriculture in various states and sowing has come down by 20 percent, with paddy being the worst hit.
Paddy acreage is down by almost 60 lakh hectares mainly due to less rain in parts of UP, Haryana, Bihar and West Bengal.
As many as 161 districts across India have been declared drought-hit. Eight of the Indian states, which are part of the grain bowl, have been declared drought-hit.
The states are Manipur, Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh. Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and parts of Orissa too are fighting a grim situation. These states are also contemplating declaring themselves drought-hit.
Expressing concerns over the situation, Pranab Mukherjee recently said that the severe drought will also affect the country’s economic growth, which is expected to be below 6% this year.
PM Dr Manmohan Singh also attended a high-level meeting including 13th Finance Commission Chairman Vijay Kelkar and Planning Commission Secretary Sudha Pillai to discuss the drought situation in India.
The Prime Minister has also asked the urged the state governments to draw up contingency plans to deal with the situation without delay.
Dr Manmohan Singh has also vowed all assistance to the states from the Central government to deal with the situation and said the government "should not hesitate to take strong measures and intervene in the market" if the need arises.
