India Supreme Court: Centre to set up special force on drought

The Supreme Court has hauled up state governments for their "ostrich-like attitude" of living in denial about the drought situation in the country. It has given guidelines for formulating a national plan and revising the drought management manual that has not been updated since 2009.

Last year's south-west monsoon had a 14% deficit, which was a 12% deficit in 2014.

More than 33 crore people have been affected by the successive droughts.

The apex court asked union agriculture secretary to hold an urgent meeting with chief secretaries of Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana on the drought situation.

This is the first part of a three part judgement. The other two are expected during the week.

Both Central and state governments are putting in every effort to mitigate the drought which has affected more than 300 districts of the country.

The Supreme Court has also stepped in and given certain guidelines in a judgment based on a Public interest litigation petition filed by non- profit Swaraj Abhiyan, which had asked the court to intervene in the prevailing drought situation in the country and direct governments to implement employment and food security schemes.

The Court asked the Centre;

• To set up a National Disaster Response Force with its own regular specialist cadre within a period of six months
• To establish a National Disaster Mitigation Fund within a period of three months
• To formulate a National Plan relating to risk assessment, risk management and crisis management in respect of a disaster
• To revise the Drought Management Manual by December 31st 2016, as there are several new developments since the Manual was published in 2009
• Innovative methods of water conservation, including of ground water should be seriously considered, dry land farming, water harvesting, drip irrigation could be considered amongst other techniques
• Union Agriculture Secretary to urgently hold a meeting within a week with Chief Secretaries of Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana to review drought situation with all the available data

This is the third consecutive drought year for the country and more than 25 percent of the country's population is affected by it. According to the central government 313 districts, or about One lakh 58 thousand 205 villages are affected by drought.

Of the thirteen states which are drought hit, 10 had declared themselves drought affected.

The Prime Minister has been meeting the Chief Ministers of all 13 states separately.

He has already met Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh.

The Prime Minister emphasized that coordinated efforts of both the center and the states is needed to deal effectively with the drought situation.

The central government has given Rs 1900 to the States affected by drought.

The States too are mandated to raise an equal amount.

This would give the states around 3,800 crore rupees to tackle the drought.

According to the plan more than 78 thousand lakes, and ponds are to be revived, and 1 lakh new water bodies created.

MGNREGA and Prime Minister's irrigation scheme will be used in water harvesting. 934 crore rupees have been placed in the National Disaster Response Fund.

Besides this the Centre has also given states enormous help with their respective State Disaster Funds.

The center is also willing to go the extra mile to help the states mitigate the drought crisis.

The Supreme Court's new guidelines will be helpful in furthering the coordinated efforts between Centre and states in mitigation of a serious natural disaster like drought.