Gandhinagar, 4 April 2013

A meeting to take important decisions on scarcity relief was held in Gandhinagar today afternoon under the leadership of Finance Minister Shri Nitin Patel. The meeting was attended by ministers of Revenue, Rural development, Power, Water supply, Agriculture, Forest departments among others.

The meeting discussed the actions to be taken in 3918 villages of 10 district’s 69 talukas that are declared fully/partially scarcity affected. Following are the major actions that are to be taken on the ground:

-Fodder depots in 15 km radius in scarcity affected areas.

-Efforts to be made for maximum cultivation of fodder. A scheme to cultivate fodder will be implemented by Agriculture department in consultation with representatives of sugar cane cooperative societies.

-To encourage cultivation of fodder till 30 April by giving input subsidy to farmers, for availability of fodder in May, June.

-Land allotment for one year to voluntary institutions on both sides of Narmada canal.

-Junagadh city had no facility to store water. The state government has set up five HDPE storage tanks – 5,000 liter capacity of each. Anandpar and Hasanpar reservoirs have now enough water storage till July-August. Similarly Amreli, Bhavnagar, Botad and other cities/towns and developing urban areas located nearby will need water storage tanks.

-Arrangements to be made for water supply through tankers for rural areas of Amreli, Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Porbandar and others where any water scheme or other sources are not available/possible. This task will be finished on war foot basis, and prant officers will be responsible to execute it.

The state government has already started distribution of fodder for Rs 2 per Kg to small farmers and poor cattle owners. The government has started extending relief of Rs 25 per cattle to cattle camps. Under the ATVT initiative, prant officers are empowered to take decision on financial support to panjrapols. District administrations are asked to hold timely reviews, while talukas are asked to do constant monitoring.