From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Jul 31: Even as the monsoon season is underway, Karnataka is staring at a severe drought situation with water table dwindling in as many as 158 taluks and the storage position in the State’s reservoirs barely touching 47%.
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who held a high-level meeting to review the situation in the entire State in Bengaluru on Tuesday, has directed the officials to accord the top-most priority for supplying drinking water in all scarcity hit taluks and also to take steps to provide fodder to cattle.
He expressed grave concern over the truancy in monsoon and noted that the State was already facing an 18% shortage of rainfall with Malnad and Hyderabad-Karnataka regions facing severe shortfall in rains.
Sowing operations have been completed in barely 53% of the rainfed agricultural lands.
Yediyurappa directed officials to accord priority for rejuvenation of groundwater table.
The Chief Minister has convened a meeting of all Deputy Commissioners of the districts for review of the situation on August 2.
He said the State Government will urge Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Central ministers to release the pending instalments of National Disaster Relief Fund and MGNREGA programmes.
As many as 3,067 villages in the State were presently being supplied with drinking water through tankers and even from private borewells.
Special control rooms were being set up in all taluks, districts and the State to monitor the situation, he said pointing out that the government had already established 27 cattlesheds and 11 fodder banks. The authorities already have sufficient stocks of fodder to last about 12 weeks, he said.
The Chief Minister said the Deputy Commissioners are being provided with contingency funds of Rs 547.6 crore to tackle the situation.
State Chief Secretary T M Vijayabhaskar, Chief Minister’s advisor M Lakshminarayana, Additional Chief Secretary and Divisional Commissioner Vandita Sharma, Additional Principal Secretary of Finance Department I S N Prasad and other senior officials participated in the meeting.