AMN
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today held a high level meeting with Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in New Delhi on drought situation in the state.
During the meeting, Mr. Modi reviewed drought and water scarcity situation and both Centre and state resolved to work together to tackle the problem.
According to an official release, the Central government has already released over 600 crore rupees to the state under the National Disaster Response Fund.
This is in addition to over 560 crore rupees released as central share of State Disaster Response Fund, SDRF for 2015-16 to Odisha. A further amount of over 294 crore rupees has also been released as first installment of SDRF for the year 2016-17.
During the meeting it was informed that the state has constructed 25 thousand farm ponds, seven thousand check dams, four thousand diversion weirs, 400 water harvesting structures and 350 community tanks as part of water conservation efforts.
On the occasion, Mr. Patnaik said, Odisha has completed District Irrigation Plans for all 30 districts, as required under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. He emphasized the state’s commitment to implement the scheme expeditiously.
Progress in other agriculture schemes, piped water supply and banking extension facilities in rural areas also came up for discussion in the meeting.