Drought relief work needs to pick up pace
Drought has hit the state again. About 100 taluks are reeling under drought as per government report. Drought situation is particularly worse in 72 taluks. Many more number of taluks are also affected by the drought. People’s lives are getting miserable. Drinking water has become scarce. Hundreds of villages are being supplied with water in tankers.
On one hand, we have terrible situation in the state but then this isn’t enough to prompt our MLAs seek aid from the government to ease people’s lives. They are busy partying around in resorts and fighting among themselves silly. Ruling and opposition parties are engaged in ‘resort’ politics day in and day out. They do not have any semblance of responsibility or humanitarian concern towards the people who voted for them. Two MLAs coming from the Ballari district of the mining-fame have got down to fist fights leaving one of them badly injured.
Even the opposition party BJP does not remember that it needs to work to train the focus of the government on drought related problems, human emergencies that have to be attended to by the government. The party has barely gone to people. All its efforts are towards somehow clinching power by toppling the current coalition government.
Hence people are disappointed with the ruling and the opposition party. Amidst all this the coalition government has taken some imperative steps to mitigate the problems caused by drought. CM has held a meeting with regional commissioners, deputy commissioners and ZP CEOs.
Four cabinet sub committees have been formed to every revenue department with a senior minister on board. A senior officer of the grade of chief secretary is the coordinator. This committee would study the drought stricken areas and present a report on the findings. The relief work has been affected by the backdoor efforts of BJP to destabilize the government.
The report would have all details about shortfall of rain and shortage of drinking water. A nodal officer has been appointed to manage the situation in every taluk. DCs have been instructed to check migration. Rs 50 lakhs has been allocated to mitigate drinking water situation in every taluk of which Rs 25 lakh has already been released.
About 8.11 lakh mini kits have been bought and distributed among the farmers free of cost to meet the cattle feed scarcity at a cost of Rs 20.66 cr. Though the government took all these steps, they have not been implemented efficiently. The relief work has not taken off at expected rate owing to disinterest on part of the ruling party. Since the media is busy covering resort politics, people aren’t getting to know the actual gory details of drought situation. CM took the officers to task recently since they had given misinformation that Rs 25 lakh that was released hadn’t reached them.
This is the time for the coalition government to open its eyes and take up drought relief work on war footing. The loan waiver schemes have to be executed at fast pace to reassure the farmers. Opposition parties have to advise the government better to manage such pro-people works.
Drought has been a curse to the state which receives good rainfall one year and then the subsequent two years would be almost dry. Hyderabad Karnataka and north Karnataka regions are known for their extreme drought like situation all through the year.
Hence the government shouldn’t initiate temporary measures but find long standing solutions for these problems. This would have a better effect on people’s lives. The coalition government needs call all-party members to involve the experts to solve this crisis and find permanent solution.
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Rupee hits all-time low for second time in a week
Mumbai (PTI): The rupee depreciated 31 paise to settle at 91.99 against the US dollar on Wednesday, touching the lowest closing level for the second time in less than a week, amid increased month-end demand for the greenback.
Forex traders said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe offered quiet reassurance. However, increased month-end demand for the American currency as well as the ongoing geopolitical tensions dented investors' sentiments.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 91.60 and touched an early high of 91.50, but pared all the gains to touch an intra-day low of 91.99 against the greenback.
The domestic unit settled 31 paise down, revisiting its lowest-ever closing level of 91.99 against the greenback. The Indian currency previously ended at this level on January 23 when it also hit its all-time intraday low of 92 against the US dollar.
On Tuesday, the rupee rebounded from its all-time low levels and gained 22 paise to close at 91.68 against the US dollar.
Analysts said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe bolstered investor sentiment.
India and the European Union on Tuesday announced the conclusion of negotiations for the free trade agreement (FTA), under which a number of domestic sectors such as apparel, chemicals and footwear will get duty-free entry into the 27-nation bloc, while the EU will get access to the Indian market at concessional duty for cars and wines, an official said.
The deal has been dubbed the "mother of all deals" as it will create a market of about 2 billion people.
Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.07 per cent lower at 96.14.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.43 per cent lower at USD 67.28 per barrel in futures trade.
On the domestic equity market front, Sensex jumped 487.20 points to settle at 82,344.68, while Nifty surged 167.35 points to 25,342.75.
Foreign Institutional Investors turned net buyers and purchased equities worth Rs 480.26 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
