Make back-up water plans, rain-starved states told

New Delhi: The committee of secretaries headed by cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar on Saturday asked key states facing deficient rains to prepare contingency plans. The committee also decided to convene a meeting of agriculture secretaries from the key states —Maharashtra, MP, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar.
    The move comes a day after the PM expressed worry at signs of a failing monsoon while chairing the Union cabinet meeting and constituted the committee which includes the agriculture and earth sciences secretaries. The Meteorological department had on Friday reported that the rains in June had been 45% below normal and 28 of the 36 meteoroligcal divisions had received less than expected rains.
    The monsoon, already delayed by two weeks, is now expected to cover the west coast by June 22 and the system being formed in the Bay of Bengal is likely to bring rain to the rest of India from June 25.
    However, sources said the IMD has been asked to release daily forecasts keeping in mind the threat of a possible failure that could hit the on-going sowing badly. The government is wary of a failed monsoon, which could hinder its plans of reviving the sluggish economy as well as implementing its Food Security Act. TNN

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Worried, state govt gears up to induce showers

Mumbai: The state government is thinking of inducing rainfall by artificial means if the monsoon does not hit the city within a couple of days. The reason: Maharashtra is facing an unprecedented shortage of water owing to the delay in monsoon.

    "If there is further delay, then the situation will be the worst ever. Monsoons have been delayed in the past too, but the state had never faced such a situation in the last two decades. In such circumstances, we will have to consider the experiment of artificial rainfall,'' a senior irrigation official told TOI.
    As per the storage capacity of major, minor and small irrigation projects across the state, the official said as on June 20, there was only 11% water of the total capacity of dams; it was 18% on the same day last year.
    In the 73 major dams, the official said less than 1,422 million cubic meter of water was available on June 20, the figure was 2,933 million cubic meter last year.
    "It comes to 6% of the total capacity, as against 16% last year and 18% in 2007,'' the official said.
    The situation is similar in medium and small dams. In the 201 medium dams, there was 12% water this year, as against 14% last year, while in the 1,955 small dams, there was 7% water. This figure was 9% last year. "We expect that monsoon will hit the state by June 22,'' he said.

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