KOLKATA, 18 AUG: The state government's decision to identify certain districts as drought-hit has raised a howl of protest even within the Cabinet, with Mr Srikumar Mukherjee, the minister from CPI, pointing out that the state was making its decisions based on average rainfall received by a district instead of declaring drought according to mouzas as was the norm of the Centre.

Mr Mukherjee dre

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

MANOJ PRASAD
RANCHI,

AN eight-member Central team, headed by National Horticulture Mission Director Vijay Kumar, will tour the rural are as of Ranchi and Khunti districts on Wednesday to assess the impact of a failed monsoon on kharif crops.

TAMLUK, 17 AUG: The CPI-M ruled state government may not have included Midnapore East in the list of drought-hit districts, but this area too is facing severe drought-like situation with 18 out of 25 blocks receiving more than 35 percent deficit in rainfall this monsoon.

The Trinamul Congress has demanded that Midnapore East be declared a drought-hit district in view of crop loss following defi

Deficient Monsoon In Bihar, West Bengal Hits Crop; Other Regions To Make Up For Eastern Losses
Devesh Kumar NEW DELHI

THE Manmohan Singh government

RANCHI/KOLKATA, 16 AUG: Drought in the eastern parts of the country spread to more areas with all the 24 districts in Jharkhand and 11 districts in West Bengal being declared drought-hit by the respective state governments today.
Bihar chief minister Mr Nitish Kumar had yesterday declared the entire state drought-hit.

SUDHIR KUMAR MISHRA

Cracked hopes

Ranchi, Aug. 16: Raj Bhavan

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar listed the welfare measures that his Government had initiated for the people of the State. In the course of his I-Day speech on Sunday, he also declared the entire State as drought-hit, thus paving the way for a host of relief measures to be implemented.

Mahesh Joshi

For the past eight years, standing crops of the three tehsils of Kannad, Gangapur, Vaijapur and some parts of Phulambri in Aurangabad district lay vulnerable, not only to drought and heavy rains, but also to deer herds.

New Delhi: Even as the capital bathed in heavy rains bringing relief from the baking sun, concerns peaked about the failed monsoon in eastern India, with the issue threatening to become a factor in poll-bound Bihar.    Congress MP Jagdambika Pal this week told Lok Sabha that eastern UP, Bihar and Jharkhand were facing a serious threat to the kharif crop because of deficient rain.