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Five Bengal districts declared drought hit

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government has declared five districts in north Bengal and parts of a sixth drought-hit. The situation is stated to have been severe in recent years.

"All these districts are reeling under the impact of an acute drought situation and the loss to crops till recently is estimated at nearly Rs. 1,000 crore," the State's Agriculture Secretary, A Purakayastha, told The Hindu here on Wednesday.

All State primary schools in the affected districts have been closed for a week in view of the prevailing dry spell. Circulars have been issued to this effect to the schools by the authorities concerned, sources said.

While the plains of Darjeeling district have been affected, the other districts to be hit by drought are Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Uttar and Daskhin Dinajpur and Malda. Paddy transplantation and jute rating have been extensively affected resulting in heavy damage to crops.

So far the State Government has released Rs. 42 crore for the immediate revival of defunct river lift irrigation schemes and digging of deep tube wells in the affected areas as well as for the distribution of agricultural inputs to the affected farmers, Mr. Purakayastha said. Water tax levied on farmers for drawing water for irrigation has been temporarily waived.

According to Mr Purakayastha who is also Secretary, Disaster Management, the State Government is contemplating framing a Disaster Management Act for better co-ordination between the departments and agencies concerned while coping with natural calamities.

The drought is the result of an unusually low rainfall in a region which has been subject to floods and erosion during the monsoon over the past few years. The rainfall this season has been 33 per cent lower than the normal as against a 2 per cent deficit in other parts of the State, he said.

Ministers of the departments concerned including those in charge of the Food and Agriculture departments are presently in north Bengal. They met with senior district officials during the day to review the situation and chalk out exigency plans in view of the drought in the region.

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Five Bengal districts declared drought hit

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