New Delhi, Thursday 13 August 2009: In view of severe drought and spiraling prices of essential commodities, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has constituted a crisis team of Group of Ministers (GoM) for monitoring the situation on a day-to-day basis.

According to reports, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who had recently said that the country was facing the most severe drought in the recent times, will head the crisis team.
The main task of this crisis team will be to minimise the damaging impact of drought on food prices and to improve the condition of farmers most-affected by it.

The GoM will also try to devise ways to contain the damages done by the failure of the Kharif season.

Besides Pranab, the GoM comprises Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora and Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

The delayed and deficient monsoon has severely affected the agriculture in various states and sowing has come down by 20 percent, with paddy being the worst hit.

Paddy acreage is down by almost 60 lakh hectares mainly due to less rain in parts of UP, Haryana, Bihar and West Bengal.

As many as 161 districts across India have been declared drought-hit. Eight of the Indian states, which are part of the grain bowl, have been declared drought-hit.

The states are Manipur, Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh. Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and parts of Orissa too are fighting a grim situation. These states are also contemplating declaring themselves drought-hit.

Expressing concerns over the situation, Pranab Mukherjee recently said that the severe drought would also affect the country’s economic growth, which is expected to be below 6% this year.

PM Dr Manmohan Singh also attended a high-level meeting including 13th Finance Commission Chairman Vijay Kelkar and Planning Commission Secretary Sudha Pillai to discuss the drought situation in India.