ReliefWeb

Jaipur: An inter-departmental central team is currently visiting the state to assess the damage to crops caused due to unseasonal rains and drought in the state.

The state government had demanded a total of Rs 3,352 crore from the Centre for flood and drought relief. The state had demanded Rs 2,645 crore from the central disaster relief fund earlier for flood relief. Recently, it had sent an additional demand for Rs 707 crore for drought relief.

Minister for disaster management and relief Master Bhawarlal Meghwal said the team had begun its tour of drought affected districts from December 16.

The state government had declared 12,943 villages in 18 districts flood affected. According to officials, 49 lakh farmers were affected due to floods in September. The government has so far released Rs 188 crore for 7,114 flood affected villages. In addition to that, district collectors had sanctioned Rs 16 crore for repair of damaged houses as immediate relief.

Similarly, the government had declared 1,388 villages in four districts of Barmer, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Hanumangarh as drought affected. According to the state government, about 4 lakh farmers in the four districts had suffered damage to crops due to drought. The additional demand is for setting up camps for livestock, make provision for drinking water, fodder and to provide subsidy to farmers.