We have already made our mind clear on the drought situation in the state. Yet, the state government is still mulling over the issue and there are no visible signs of contingency plans. Meanwhile, the Centre has already swung into action with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh directing all departments and ministries to coordinate with states to meet any eventuality by monitoring the alarming monsoon situation on a weekly basis. The Central government has prepared extensive plans to deal with the deficiency in the Monsoon rainfall in some parts of the country and is in full readiness to meet any contingency that may arise out of it. According to the Indian Met Department, the cumulative rainfall for the period from June one to July 15 is 22 per cent less than the Long Period Average (LPA). A recent government statement said the government has already chalked out contingency plans and these will be rolled out in the areas which continue to receive low rainfall. An inter-ministerial group under Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation is reviewing the situation on a weekly basis and holding video conference with the state governments. It is closely monitoring the prices of wheat, rice, sugar, pulses and vegetable. A proposal for increase in subsidy for supply of pulses through Public Distribution System to BPL families is being brought before Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. Sufficient funds to the tune of Rs 4,524 crore are currently available under National Disaster Relief Fund. Suitable advisories regarding fodder availability have been issued in the states by the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries. These include preservation of crop residue that may be used as fodder in the next season. All options for increasing fodder availability under Joint Forest Management Programme will be explored by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The need for according the highest priority to drinking water was stressed. The
Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation will henceforth be monitoring the status of the affected habitations on a weekly basis, rather than on a fortnightly basis as is presently being done. These are what we call contingency plans. One has to think of the current year impact and of the scarcity next year. The impact of drought is manifold. Like for example, deficient rainfall means lack of water in the sources and the reservoirs. Has the state government thought of this as a possible problem? It does not, as it is not reflected in the cabinet decision. A previous cabinet meeting took a funny decision of subsidizing Urea fertilizer in the wake of deficient rainfall. A second one formed Cabinet Sub Committees to directly monitor the situation. When did the ministers acquire the necessary expertise and knowledge to give an informed opinion on the drought situation or for that matter agriculture activity? We have indeed become a laughing stock of the whole nation. Besides the Agriculture Department, we have here in Imphal a Central Agriculture University. The experts of these institutions and officials of other line departments should have been the teams engaged in directly monitoring the drought situation. They are the people in the know. The latest cabinet decision has delayed the decision on drought for a week while it talks about making the various River Lift Irrigation (RLI) stations operational with governmental support in terms of diesel. What is this different from the Urea decision? Where will the water come from if there are no adequate monsoon rains? If there are insufficient water in the rivers how are you going to feed the parched fields through the canal network?
