Key points
- Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma announced a ₹9,321 crore special package for drought relief on November 13.
- 87 tehsils in 15 districts are declared drought-affected: 73 severely and 14 moderately.
- Officials must run fodder depots, complete a girdawari crop-loss survey and give tubewells priority for power.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma on Friday, November 13, announced a special package of ₹9,321 crore for the state’s drought-hit areas, where 87 tehsils across 15 districts have been formally declared affected after a monsoon that delivered about 20% less rain than the state’s average.
He made the announcement at a review meeting of the Disaster Management, Relief and Civil Defence Department held at the Chief Minister’s Office in Jaipur. Of the 87 tehsils, 73 are classed as severely affected and 14 as moderately affected.
What the Chief Minister ordered
The meeting produced a list of instructions rather than a line-by-line budget. Officials were told to monitor relief work closely and stay in constant touch with district administrations in the affected areas. Drinking water, irrigation water and fodder are to be made available to the public, farmers and livestock owners.
Fodder depots are to be run, in an organised way and according to local need, in districts where rainfall was below normal. Gaushalas, the cow shelters, are to be given enough water and fodder for the animals in their care.
On crops, the Agriculture Department must prepare a report on kharif losses based on girdawari, the official field-by-field verification, and relief is to reach farmers whose crops were damaged. The girdawari is the step that decides who is counted as a loser, which is why the opposition had demanded it quickly in October. Reports of the meeting say the assessment is to cover tenant farmers as well as landowners.
Rajasthan drought at a glance
- ₹9,321 crorespecial relief package announced November 13
- 87tehsils in 15 districts declared drought-affected
- 73 + 14severely and moderately affected tehsils
- About 20%monsoon rain below the state's average
Water, power and work
The Public Health Engineering Department has been asked to ensure drinking water supply under its contingency plans, and to arrange transport of water where it is needed. The Energy Department has been told to give priority to power connections for tubewells, the main source of irrigation and drinking water in many western villages once ponds and dams run low.
The Rural Development Department is to speed up work and livelihood activity under the VB-G RAM G rural employment scheme, the Rajeevika women’s livelihood mission and the housing schemes, so that families with no crop income have wages coming in.
Chief Secretary V. Srinivas, Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister Akhil Arora and Additional Chief Secretary for Disaster Management Bhaskar A. Sawant attended, along with senior officials of the Public Health Engineering, Revenue, Animal Husbandry, Agriculture and Horticulture, Cooperative, Finance, Employment Guarantee and Water Resources departments.
At the same meeting the Chief Minister also reviewed the Rajeevika and dairy departments, saying their programmes help raise rural women’s incomes and create local jobs, and asking for more support in manufacturing, marketing, branding and sales of their products.
How the drought reached this point
Western Rajasthan felt the shortfall early. On October 18, former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, now in the opposition, said the government had not grasped the seriousness of the drought and claimed thousands of cattle had died in Jaisalmer for want of fodder and water, with fodder at ₹20 a kg. He asked why the state was not seeking help from the Centre and demanded cattle camps, work in affected villages and a quick girdawari. Our report on his demands records that no government reply was found at the time. The cattle figures are his claims; the state has not published a count.
Rajasthan is not alone. Karnataka’s Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said on November 12 that he would press the Prime Minister for drought relief, and Maharashtra has been paying out drought aid to farmers. Our Bengaluru report has the Karnataka side.
What is not yet known
None of the reports of the meeting says how the ₹9,321 crore is divided between fodder, water, crop-loss compensation and employment, whether it is new money or a total of existing schemes and state disaster funds, or when payments will begin. No figure for the amount sought from the Centre has been given. The opposition and farmers’ organisations had not responded on the record by Saturday morning.
For a farmer in a declared tehsil, the practical questions are narrower. The girdawari report decides who is eligible for crop-loss relief, fodder depots decide whether cattle can be kept through the winter, and tubewell power decides whether a village has water while ponds are dry.
What happens next
The next step is the girdawari. Once the Agriculture Department’s loss report is ready, the amounts per farmer and the schedule of payments can be fixed. The government has not announced a date for the report. Gehlot and other opposition leaders have asked for relief to begin without delay, and the size of the package will be tested against how quickly fodder depots open and compensation reaches villages in the 87 declared tehsils.