TAKING STOCK: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy along with Agriculture Marketing Minister Sharanabasappa Darshanapur and Finance Secretary Subramanya reviewing the flood situation at the Deputy Commissioner's office in Gulbarga on Saturday.

GULBARGA: The Gulbarga district administration on Saturday presented a grim picture of the flood situation in villages on the banks of the Krishna and the Bhima and the drought prevailing in the rest of the district this year to Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and sought additional funds for providing relief to affected people.

Deputy Commissioner Pankajkumar Pandey who made a powerpoint presentation of the flood and drought in the district at the review meeting chaired by the Chief Minister. Agriculture Marketing Minister Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, senior officials including Development Secretary A.K. Agarwal, Finance Secretary Subramanya and legislators including Raju Gowda, M.Y. Patil, Veerbasantreddy Mudnal, Valyapur and Sharanaprakash were present.

Mr. Pandey said according to the preliminary survey conducted by the Agriculture Department, the standing crops in more than 8032 hectares of land in Gulbarga (1480 hectares), Afsalpur (3224 hectares), Jewargi (2330 hectares), Chitapur (34 hectares), Yadgir (217 hectares), and Shahapur (747 hectares) were lost owing to flooding in the Bhima. Twenty-four villages in Surpur and 28 villages in Shahapur were affected owing to floods in the Krishna.

According to estimates, standing crops on 1,120 hectares in Shahapur and 170 hectares in Surpur were lost in flood in Krishna river. Surpur MLA Raju Gowda disputed the claims of the district administration and said the figures provided by the administration on the loss of standing crops in Surpur taluk was far from reality and demanded that the administration conduct a fresh survey.

Crops wither

On the drought in the district, Mr. Pandey in his presentation said due to the failure of rain in July, the farmers who had taken up short duration cash crops on 1.80 lakh hectares in the district suffered losses owing to withering of the crops. M.Y. Patil said the farmers who had taken up sugarcane crop also sustained losses.

The Deputy Commissioner also pointed out the problems faced by the administration in taking up drought relief works under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in the district since the people were not coming forward to take up the work offered under the NREGS owing to the low minimum wages fixed.

Agriculture Marketing Minister Sharanabasappa Dharshanapur in his welcome speech urged the Chief Minister to take a decision on providing permanent relief to the flood-affected villages and pay adequate compensation to farmers.

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