News
Rs. 5.5 billion sought to resume drought relief programme
With the North East monsoon season not brining enough rain, the Government is seeking Rs 5.5 billion to resume its food relief programme in drought-affected areas, a senior minister said. Disaster Management Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa told the Sunday Times the Treasury was expected to release the money in the coming weeks following Cabinet approval. The distribution would start from this month and continue for four months. Cabinet approval is expected to be given on Tuesday.
The food relief programme which was started last year ended in December with the onset of rains. But the Government was compelled to resume it when the North East monsoon did not bring adequate rain, the minister said.Last year the Disaster Management Ministry spent Rs 6.51 billion to provide food relief and drinking water to some 735,298 families in 19 drough-affected districts as the country experienced its worst ever drought in four decades.
According to the Disaster Management Centre (DMC), nearly 260,000 people from 81,657 families have been affected by the severe drought prevailing in the North, North Central and North Western Provinces. N.H.M. Chithrananda, District Secretary of Puttalam, one of the worst affected districts, said some 40,000 families received food relief during last year’s drought, but a majority of agriculture-dependent families were still in need of food relief.
A three-member family received Rs. 2000 worth of dry rations while large families received dry rations worth upto Rs. 5,000.In the North, vast areas of paddy lands had been destroyed by the drought, with some 15,000 farmer families being directly affected by it. However, the residents held Pongal harvest festivals in some paddy fields that survived the drought to produce the harvest.
At last Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, Minister Chandrani Bandara, who represents the drought-hit Anuradhapura District, pointed out that there was an urgent need to provide drought relief to people in some of the worst-hit areas. President Maithripala Sirisena directed relevant ministry officials to provide dry rations to affected families immediately.