Karnataka ministers to tour drought-hit districts

Karnataka ministers will tour drought-hit districts across the state to assess the ground situation, including supply of drinking water in the affected areas, said the ruling JD-S-Congress coordination committee chairman Siddaramaiah on Thursday. "The ministers heading each of the four teams the state government formed last month will tour the drought-hit districts they have been assigned and review the relief-measures taken to mitigate hardships faced by the people," Siddaramaiah told reporters here.

The coalition government has declared 17 of the 30 districts as drought-hit due to deficit rainfall during the south-west monsoon from June to September and failure of the north-east monsoon from October to December. The ministers have been authorised to take suitable action to provide relief to the people, including farmers and the landless due to crop loss," said the former Congress chief minister.

The 5-member committee headed by Siddaramaiah, has Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) national secretary Danish Ali, Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara and Congress secretary and party's state in-charge K.C. Venugopal. A 10-member inter-ministerial central team (IMCT) in November visited the drought-hit districts in the southern state's three regions and assessed the losses incurred by farmers and the people.

According to state Revenue Minister R.V. Deshpande, the state has been facing drought since the past 13 years. As per preliminary estimates, 15-lakh hectares of agricultural and horticultural crops have been affected, with an estimated loss of Rs 8,000 crore.