State govt declares entire Jharkhand as drought-affected

In a significant development, the council of advisors to the state governor on Saturday declared the entire Jharkhand as drought-affected. So far, only 11 of the 24 districts were drought-affected.

The council, which met here on Saturday, directed the officials to ensure alternate cropping and implementation of employment generating scheme on a war footing. In yet another major development, the council also slashed the number of departments from 43 to 25.

Briefing reporters, state cabinet secretary P K Jajoria said people living below poverty line (BPL) would be given foodgrains free of cost and new employment generation schemes would be implemented in order to check migration of labourers. He said the government will ensure that sufficient quantity of foodgrains is available at public distribution system (PDS) outlets.

The state goverment has also decided to increase the number of PDS outlets to deal with the crisis. Till now, one PDS outlet was available on 1,900 persons. But now one PDS will be available on a population of 1,000 people. This way, the state will have an additional 12,500 PDS outlets, which will be allowed to sell non-PDS items as well. The advisory council also approved Rs 360 crore for supplementary nutritional programme.

Mr Jajoria said the council also decided to slash the number of departments from 43 to 25 for smooth functioning. "At the time of creation of Jharkhand, there were only 19 deptartments. But the number kept on increasing. But now the state cabinet can have only 12 ministers and also there is a shortfall of secretary rank officials. Therefore the decision to restructure the departments was taken," he added.