Will wait before declaring drought: Byre Gowda

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda (in pic) on Thursday said the State government will wait till July 15 before declaring a drought.

He added that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had forecast good rains in the coming days even for areas with a record of being dry such as the Kalyana Karnataka belt.

The minister insisted that showers in July are providing relief to the state from the rainfall deficit experienced in June.

Answering questions on a possible drought, raised by Opposition MLAs, Byre Gowda said: “The monsoon is picking up. The state is recovering from the deficit rainfall that it faced in June.”

Former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on the other hand insisted that the state government should not wait until the last moment and declare a drought right away. Until July 1, about a dozen districts received less than the usual amount of rainfall.

The IMD had clarified that this was partly down to the “extremely severe” cyclone Biparjoy siphoning off moisture-laden winds.

However, after the cyclone made its landfall in Gujarat on June 15, conditions were favourable for the advancement of monsoon, the IMD added. The declaration notwithstanding, the quantum of rainfall in many districts hasn’t been encouraging.

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) minister Priyank Kharge had released Rs1 crore each to all districts to ensure drinking water is made available by way of tankers.

Byre Gowda informed the Assembly that 193 villages had been dependent on tankers for potable water, adding that 400 villages had turned to private borewells .