O Paneerselvam seeks Rs 39,565 crores to tackle drought

The Chief Minister has also sought an urgent ‘on account’ payment of Rs. 1,000 crore to take up immediate relief and rehabilitation measures. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Panneerselvam said that following a 62 per cent deficit rainfall during the northeast monsoon and a 20 per cent deficit during the southwest monsoon, a total of 13,305 out of 16,682 revenue villages in the state have been identified as drought affected. 

“The district level committees conducted field inspections and submitted their reports. Ground truthing exercise was carried out in 1,564 villages which revealed that in 87 per cent of the area, the extent of damage was estimated to be more than 50 per cent indicating that the drought was ‘severe’ in a majority of villages. The situation is likely to worsen in the ensuing months as further rains are not part of the normal pattern,” the Chief Minister stated. 

Pointing out that the state had been declared as drought affected after taking into consideration the prevailing situation in the state and after satisfying the criteria in the revised manual for Drought Management 2016, he said that water storage position in all water bodies was also at a critical level with just 25.742 tmc of water available in 15 major reservoirs in the state with a combined total capacity of 198.384 tmc. 

In view of the urgency of the situation, the CM urged the Centre to depute a team to study the extensive damages caused to agriculture crops and to take stock of the drinking water scarcity. The letter and a detailed memorandum was handed over to the PM’s Office by State Relief Commissioner and Commissioner of Revenue Administration Dr K Satyagopal and Secretary to government, Revenue Department Dr B Chandra Mohan.