CM’s drought plan: Cloud-seeding

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Jagadish Shettar has decided to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Sadananda Gowda and tackle the severe drought by going for cloud seeding to get artificial rains despite apprehensions expressed by experts on whether the experiment would be successful.

After chairing a review meeting with deputy commissioners and and district CEOs vide a video conference, Mr Shettar said his government was considering conducting cloud seeding in drought affected taluks.

“We have already sought a technical report from Pune-based Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM). I have instructed officials to evolve an action plan before we announce a tender for the purpose”, the CM said.

“Once the government gets a report from IITM, we will call for a short-term tender. In 15-20 days, we will get a clear picture”, the CM said. Karnataka had attempted cloud seeding when Mr S.M. Krishna was Chief Minister but the experiment did not succeed as cloud seeding was considered too expensive.

The Chief Minister instructed the DCs and CEOs to prepare contingency plans to handle the drought situation and announced Rs 123 crore for drought hit taluks and a special grant of Rs 40 crore to districts to tackle drinking water problems.

During the video conference, Mr Shettar took to task the deputy commissioner and chief executive officer of Koppal district for poor implementation of Mahathma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGREGS). He warned them that if they failed to utilize the funds released for MGREGS, they would be held responsible for the lapse.

However, the CM who had handled the rural development portfolio earlier, failed to match his predecessor D.V. Sadananda Gowda who would come prepared for such meetings.

Mr Sadananda Gowda could pose specific questions to district officials which would put them off guard, said sources.

During the meeting, the CM instructed officials to provide fodder at 50 percent subsidy to farmers. Many deputy commissioners complained that farmers have not come forward to buy fodder and want it to be provided free of cost.