Kolkata: The West Bengal Government on Friday geared up to tackle the situation in the 11 drought-hit districts hit by cancelling leave of certain department staff and more than doubling the allocation that it had announced on Monday.

Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta announced that Rs.115 crore was being allocated to help farmers take up alternate crops.

Hazaribagh/Ranchi, Aug.

Bhubaneswar: Apprehending a possible crop loss in Odisha this year, chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday directed the concerned department to make an action plan to combat drought-like situation in the state.

The directive of the chief minister came while reviewing precautionary measures on possible flood situation at the State Secretariat here.

The meeting revealed that districts like

SUDHIR KUMAR MISHRA

Cracked hopes

Ranchi, Aug. 16: Raj Bhavan

AMIT GUPTA

Ranchi, Aug. 11: The state administration will submit a memorandum to the Centre seeking assistance of around Rs 2,000 crore in Jharkhand, which is in the throes of a severe drought.

Jamshedpur, Aug. 9: The forest department has extended a helping hand to the farmers of Pipla and Bhagabandh villages in drought-hit East Singhbhum district under the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), a frontal agency fighting hunger worldwide.

Recently, the department started a lift irrigation project in both the villages covering 10 hectares of land.

Prime Minister Man-mohan Singh is likely to appoint a panel, comprising members of Parliament, to examine the implementation of the Rs 7,266-crore Bundelkhand package, allocated to drought-hit districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

The Centre will on Tuesday hold a high-level meeting to finalise the implementation of the Rs 7277 crore Bundelkhand package announced earlier by the Government.

The Haryana government has allocated a sum of over Rs 79.28 crore for payment of relief to farmers of Bhiwani and Hisar districts whose Rabi crops-2008 were damaged due to drought.