Jagadish Shettar

BANGALORE: To meet the drinking water and fodder shortage in some drought-hit areas, the State Government has directed officials to buy drinking water and fodder not only from other districts, but also from other States.

Speaking to presspersons here on Thursday, Revenue Minister Jagadish Shettar said that 33 villages in the State were facing shortage of drinking water in the wake of the drought in a majority of taluks. At present, drinking water was being transported in tankers to these villages from neighbouring areas. As many as 128 taluks in the State had been declared "drought-hit."

The Minister expressed dissatisfaction over the delay by the Centre in acting on the State's request for granting 1.74 lakh tonnes of foodgrains and Rs 1,200 crore financial assistance for taking up drought-relief measures in these taluks.

The State would again take up the issue with Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Mr. Shettar said.

He urged the Union Government not to politicise crucial issues like drought assistance.

Mr. Shettar said the Government would soon take a decision on whether to grant additional funds for some drought-hit taluks which had sought more assistance.

He said fodder banks had been set up in Chitradurga and Koppal districts where there was shortage.

The State Government is planning to rope in nationalised banks and some cooperative banks to sell stamp papers to ease the shortage.

This was in addition to the plans to extend the sale of stamp paper to 200 additional branches of the State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of India, Mr. Shettar said. At present, stamp papers are available in only 300 branches of the SBM and SBI.

Consultations

The Minister, who held consultations in this regard with senior officers of nationalised banks, said they had shown interest in selling the stamp papers in their banks.

Stamp paper would thus be available in around 1,000 branches of various banks in the State, the Minister pointed out.

The main aim of this measure was to ensure the availability of stamp papers in all taluk centres, he added.

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