The Gujarat government, on Monday, declared 35 more tehsils as scarcity hit in the state. The state government and Centre will pay relief of Rs 3,000 crore for the 51 scarcity affected tehsils in Gujarat. The government has declared the tehsils with recorded rainfall of less than 250mm in the monsoon season as scarcity hit. Implementation of relief in newly declared tehsils will begin December 31 onwards.
The deputy chief minister Nitin Patel made this announcement at a press conference in Gandhinagar. He said, "The farmers in affected areas will get compensation of Rs 6,800 per hectare for up to 2 hectares maximum. Farmers will also get fodder at Rs 2 per kg for cattle." "Many non-government organisations which take care of cattle during scarcity will get Rs 25 per animal on routine days while they will get Rs 70 per animal for two months in the peak season," he added.
The government has also extended the number of man-days to 150 days in place of 100 days during scarcity under the MNREGA scheme.
"We have also ensured that people in affected areas get employment so they will get more days to work during this tough period. School- and anganwadi-going children will get mid-day meal during vacations too. We will make sure that the mid-day meal scheme continues through Diwali and Christmas vacations, so that children get nutritious food free of cost," the deputy CM further added.
Earlier, the government had declared 16 tehsils including the entire Kutch district as scarcity hit and now 35 more have been added to that list. With this, almost all of Banaskantha, Patan and Surendranagar districts have come under scarcity hit areas.
These tehsils could be categorised as scarcity hit or affected area after the central government relaxed the parameters for the system to declare any area as scarcity affected.
Nitin Patel shed light on this development and said, "The central government has adopted a generous approach for declaration of scarcity hit areas. As per the older system, areas where total rainfall during season was recorded at 125mm or less were categorised as scarcity hit but now the central government has revised this parameter to 250mm rainfall."
WHAT NEXT
- Deputy CM Nitin Patel said, “The farmers in affected areas will get compensation of Rs 6,800 per hectare for up to 2 hectares maximum. Farmers will get fodder at Rs 2 per kg for cattle.”
- Government also extended the number of man-days to 150 days in place of 100 days during scarcity under the MNREGA scheme.
