-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Hit by severe drought in at least 11 states across the country, the BJP-led NDA government has tasked its premier think-tank Niti Aayog to outline a drought mitigation strategy for the country. The report, which is likely to propose short-term, mediumterm and long-term measures, is expected in a fortnight following which the Aayog will get into a mission mode to get the task done so that the...

Till recently agricultural production in the current crop year was expected to be adversely affected by drought situation in more than 10 states, apart from hailstorms and excessive rainfall that happened in March. However, if one were to believe a recent forecast made by the Ministry of Agriculture, the overall foodgrain production in the country this crop year is anticipated to remain almost the same as last year. In 2014-15,...

-Business Standard/ PTI Directs Centre to constitute a national disaster response force within the next six months In a strong indictment of Centre and states' handling of the drought situation, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said if state governments maintain an "ostrich-like attitude", Centre cannot wash its hands of constitutional responsibility, since the "buck stops" with it. The apex court, giving its judgment on a public interest litigation by Swaraj Abhiyan on drought,...

-The New Indian Express BARGARH: In the dry and dusty landscape of Kharamal village, located on the foothills of Gandhamardan hill range, two Farmers depict a picture of contrast. The village comes under Jamseth gram panchayat of Paikmal block, which is often hit by drought. Vast stretches of barren land in Kharamal have lost their water retention capacity due to long dry spell for several years. Farmers Sitaram Majhi and Dambru Majhi,...

-PTI NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to create a disaster mitigation fund to tackle drought- like situation and directed the Agriculture Ministry to hold a meeting within a week with affected states like Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana to assess the conditions.       A bench headed by Justice M B Lokur directed the Centre to also implement the provisions of Disaster Management Act and fix a time limit for...