Question : DROUGHT PRONE AREAS

(a) The total drought prone areas in the country, State-wise ;

(b) The steps taken to provide adequate relief to the farmers to combat the drought situation in these States during the last three years and till date particularly in Orissa and Maharashtra ;

(c) Whether any employment scheme is undertaken for the drought affected farmers in each State;

(d) If so, the details thereof, State-wise; and

(e) The action taken/proposed to be taken by the Government for proper implementation of various schemes in the drought affected areas of the country during this period ?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT (SHRI A. NARENDRA)

(a) Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP) covers an area of 74.6 million hectares spread over 972 blocks of 182 districts in 16 States. The State-wise details are given in Annexure-I.

(b) Government extends financial support from National Calamity Contingency Fund

(NCCF) and supply of food grains to the drought affected States as relief measures. The details of such assistance provided to the DPAP States including Maharashtra and Orissa during the last three years are given in Annexure-II.

(c)to(e) Various Rural Development Programmes interalia, have the objective of poverty alleviation and employment generation in the rural areas of the country. However, two schemes namely Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojna (SGRY) and Swarn Jayanti Swrozgar Yojna (SGSY) are being implemented specifically for the generation of wage-employment and self-employment respectively. All the programmes of rural development are vigorously monitored and evaluated for their effective implementation .