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Deficient monsoon: Manmohan convenes meet

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, JULY 9 . The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, today convened a high-level meeting to review the preparedness of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to meet the situation in case the rainfall during the monsoon remains deficient.

The meeting was attended by the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Sharad Pawar, and the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Kapil Sibal, along with senior officials of the Ministries and the India Meteorological Department.

The Prime Minister's Office sources said Dr. Singh wanted to update himself on the moisture and paddy plantation in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

The fact that the monsoon has not yet broken over the North-West, covering Punjab, Haryana, parts of Rajasthan and Maharashtra, is causing concern. At the same time, there has been a prolonged dry spell in the Telangana and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh which are on the verge of a drought-like situation.

The Prime Minister sought to know from the Agriculture Minister the progress of kharif sowing in affected States and the availability of foodgrain stocks in the central pool.

He also apprised himself of the progress of monsoon. According to reports, there had been some improvement in the central part of India, Maharashtra and the North-East.

According to sources, Mr. Pawar informed Dr. Singh that his Ministry had despatched teams of officers to the five States concerned to do a spot assessment of the preparedness of State Governments. States are supposed to put in place a Contingency Plan to advise farmers on short-duration and late sowing variety of crops which could withstand delayed/deficient monsoon.

The Prime Minister was informed that the foodstocks in the central pool stood at 306 lakh tonnes, as against the buffer norm of 243 lakh tonnes on July 1.

He was also advised to wait till July 15, by when the progress of the monsoon would be known.

Also, by then the reports of the teams sent by the Agriculture Ministry would become available.

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