158 blocks in 17 Jharkhand districts face drought like situations, Ex-gratia amount of Rs 3500 to affected farmers

Ranchi, January 10: Chief minister Hemant Soren reviewed the drought like situation in the state at a meeting of the state disaster management authority on Wednesday.

It was informed that  due to less rainfall in the state this year too, there is a drought situation in 158 blocks of 17 districts.

In the light of the report of the state agriculture department, it was recommended to declare all the above blocks as drought areas. In the meeting, the Chief Minister directed the disaster management department to prepare a proposal to declare all these 158 blocks as drought areas, so that it can be placed for approval in the cabinet meeting.

The Chief Minister directed the officials of the disaster management department to send a proposal to the Central Government to provide financial assistance to the drought affected farmers.

The Chief Minister told the officials that appropriate steps should be taken to provide relief to the farmers affected by drought.

Like last year, this year too directive was issued to give ex-gratia amount of Rs 3500 per farmer as immediate relief to the farmers affected by drought.

Apart from this, input grant amount will be paid to those farmers whose crops have been damaged up to 33 percent due to less rainfall.