The Supreme Court on Wednesday stepped in on the drought situation in several parts of the country. The apex court directed the central government to set up a disaster mitigation fund for tackling drought situations.
According to the Supreme Court, there should be a disaster response force to tackle drought-like situation while there must be a time frame for declaring drought.
This comes four days after Prime Minister took cognisance of the situation prevailing in parts of the country as he convened a meeting with the Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, states that are worst hit by the drought problem.
The Centre had, however, made it clear that while it was doing its bit to provide relief to those affected by the drought, it was for the states themselves to address the situation on the ground.
"The Centre's role is to monitor and the state's role is to provide assistance and help the affected people at ground level," Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had said in Rajya Sabha recently while replying to a debate on drought.
"The Central Government does its bit, but all state governments should also do their best" in addressing the drought situation, he had said.
Battling drought situation, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka have sought Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 12,272 crore from the Centre.
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