Even as the Gujarat government initiated the process of declaring a large part of the State drought-hit in the wake of the monsoon continuing to play truant, the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river started overflowing on Wednesday following heavy rains in its catchment areas in Madhya Pradesh.

A high-level Cabinet sub-committee headed by Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala which assessed the situation has come to the conclusion that scarcity conditions prevailed in at least 152 of the 225 talukas across 22 of the 26 districts in the State, which till the first week of August had received less than 150 mm of rainfall.