Relax norms on declaring drought, CM tells Centre

BENGALURU: Chief minister Siddaramaiah wrote to Union agriculture minister Narender Singh Tomar on Sunday, urging the Centre to relax parameters and norms to declare drought. Siddaramaiah said this will help the state government accurately respond to the vagaries of the monsoon propelled by climate change.
The move comes in the wake of repeated dry spells in the state after the late arrival of the monsoon in June and surplus rain in July.Deficit rainfall has been recorded across regions in the state and it has adversely impacted the farm sector as sowing has been completed on only 39 lakh of the targeted 82 lakh hectares for the kharif season.
In his letter, the CM states there are drought-like situations in several taluks but the government cannot declare drought due to “stringent” parameters prescribed in amendments made in 2020 to the ‘Manual for Drought Management-2016’.
“In the current southwest monsoon season, Karnataka has recorded 234mm against a normal rainfall of 336mm, with 34% deficiency. This was also in the backdrop of the delayed arrival of the monsoon and a deficit of 56% in June due to a weak monsoon (sic),” Siddaramaiah said in the letter.
While urging the central government to re-evaluate parameters in the wake of erratic monsoon distribution, he also urged the Centre to consider rainfall deviation ranging from -20% to -59% as mandatory to declare drought instead of the present rainfall deviation of -60%.
He also suggested considering a lower than two-week consecutive dry spell under rainfall indices instead of 3-4 weeks and demanded that the timeline of crop insurance disbursement be synchronised with input subsidy (ex gratia for crop loss).