The Centre and State governments have made a multi-pronged effort to mitigate the impact of drought, said Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh.

“The country has experienced two successive years of poor rains. Immediately after the IMD’s monsoon forecasts in April, 2015 and recognising the gravity of the situation, the Government of India, in collaboration with State Governments, responded rapidly,” he said on Saturday, adding that the government is closely monitoring the situation on a daily basis.

Outlining various measures taken in this regard, the Minister said that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has been strengthened while availability of food and drinking water is a priority.

“Additional allocation of food grains has been made to Maharashtra and Karnataka States on their request,” he said, adding that the majority of the drought affected States have obtained financial approvals to serve mid-day meals during summer vacations in their drought affected districts and areas.

The Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture along with the State agricultural universities has also prepared a Contingency Plan for 600 districts while States also took steps like in-situ soil and moisture conservation, micro-irrigation and ground water re-charge.

“These steps ensured that in spite of two successive droughts, the overall agriculture production has not dipped and food stocks are adequate,” he said.

Meanwhile, to make available more drinking water, the government has taken various measures such as commissioning of 44,498 new bore wells and repair and restoration of over 77,000 hand pumps.

For farmers’ assistance, the Government of India has rolled out a new Crop Insurance Scheme called the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna from kharif 2016, said Singh, adding that insurance companies have also been asked to make timely payments.

Claims to the excess of Rs 13,000 crore have either been paid or are being settled expeditiously, he said.

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