Will implement SC directives on drought soon: Govt

12 May, New Delhi

The Centre Thursday said it will take immediate steps to implement the Supreme Court’s judgement on the drought-like situation in the country.

Agriculture Secretary Shobhana K Pattanayak told a News Agency that his Ministry is going through the judgement.

In a judgement pronounced yesterday on the petition filed by an NGO, the Supreme Court had asked the central government to set up a national disaster mitigation fund within three months to tackle the drought-like situation.

Pattanayak also said, the Ministry will call a meeting of the officials of Bihar, Haryana and Gujarat in a week’s time to review the drought situation in these states.

The country is facing second straight year of drought because of poor monsoon. As many as ten states including Maharashtra and Karnataka have declared drought in the 2015-16 crop year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently held a separate meeting to review the drought situation with Chief Ministers of five states – Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana. Mr Modi is also due to meet the Chief Ministers of other drought-hit States in the coming days.