Drought: Chennithala writes to Centre

Thiruvananthapuram: Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Ramesh Chennithala Wednesday urged the Centre to urgently send a central team to take stock of the drought situation in the state and announce a special package.

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chennithala also wanted six months moratorium to be declared on loans taken by farmers from scheduled and public sector banks.

“The entire farming and agrarian activities in the state has been ravaged by depredation of weather with an estimated crop lose to the tune of Rs 200 crore,” he said in the letter, a copy of which was released to the media here.

He said the water level in all the major dams and rivers, which the state mainly relies upon for drinking water, irrigation and electricity purposes, has depleted, and will soon dry up.

There is also a sudden depletion of ground water reserve in the state. About 25707 hectares of fertile land have already become parched as almost all crops have been destroyed, he said.

The government has already declared the 14 districts in the state as drought affected areas.

He said the state government was unable to handle the crisis on its own and hence a special central team should be sent to the state to take a stock of the situation.