CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has sought a special relief package of Rs.1,000 crore from the Centre in view of drought-like conditions in the State.

In a communication to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr. Hooda said Haryana Power Utilities had to be compensated for costly purchase of additional power to facilitate sowing of kharif crops.

Atiq Khan
LUCKNOW: Twenty-seven more districts in Uttar Pradesh were declared drought-affected on Sunday after a fresh review by the State government.

This brings the total number of drought-hit districts in the State to 47. Twenty districts were declared drought-affected on Saturday.

Agriculture hit by scanty rain

Dehradun: The Uttarakhand Government has sought Central assistance of Rs.200 crore in the wake of drought-like conditions in the State due to scanty rainfall for the past six months, official sources said.

K. Balchand
NEW DELHI: In a bid to provide relief to seven drought-affected districts of Bundelkhand region and eastern Uttar Pradesh, the National Agricultural Bank for Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned Rs.246 crore.

Bangalore, DHNS:

The state cabinet, which met on Thursday, decided to release Rs 40 crore towards drought relief works in the state.

Maharashtra in the grip of severest drought since 1972 maharashtra seems to be heading towards a drought-year. On July 9, the state government declared a

Pune, July 28 Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh will soon be meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek central aid to counter the drought-like situation prevailing in the state, despite the intermittent rains in the last few days. As a first step towards this, divisional commissioners of the six revenue divisions in Maharashtra have been asked to draft assessment and suggestion reports to be forwarded to the chief minister's office by next Monday.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has urged the Central government for inclusion of Tikamgrh, Chhatarpur, Datia, Sagar and Satna districts in the special category under farm loan waiver scheme so that other farmers of this drought affected districts could also be reasonably benefited under the scheme. Chouhan has written a letter to the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh urging him to advise the Union Finance Ministry in this regard.

Madhya Pradesh government has sought assistance of Rs 1548.91 crore from the Central government for drought relief works. A memorandum in this regard was presented to a central team, which has arrived here to assess the drought situation in the state at meeting with senior officers of the state government here today.

Large swathes of the usually humid southern China are currently facing drought, described as the worst in 50 years. The drought has left over a million people short of drinking water and has shrunk