Open employment works on war footing, CM directs DMs

     Raipur, February 15, 2009: Amid reports from various districts of exodus, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh has directed all the district collectors to open employment generated works in war footing.

     Make such arrangements that all the Gram Panchayats should have at least one employment generated work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, the Chief Minister said.

     Singh directed all the District Collectors of the state to make alternate arrangements for drinking water as many parts of the state was facing dry spell this year.

      Both the things should be done on war footing, Singh directed.

     Eight districts of Chhattisgarh have been declared drought hit by the state BJP government after revenue reports revealed 34 revenue units have been hit by insufficient rains, officials said today.

     34 tehsils spread over Raipur, Mahasamund, Durg, Rajnandgaon, Kawardha, Bilaspur, Kanker and Bijapur districts have been declared drought hit by the Chhattisgarh government after receiving crop reports from those places, the officials said.

     After declaring them drought hit the state government also ordered for halt to collection of revenue and start of relief works, they said.

     However, the state government was silent about the number of migration from those places due to lack of crop or the reason why sufficient relief works had not been started despite the areas hit by drought.

     From Raipur, Simga and Kasdol tehsils and Basna and Bagbahara of Mahasamund districts have been declared drought hit along with entire Saja, Bemetara, Nawagarh, Berla, Baloud, Patan, Dhamdha tehsils and 33 villages of Lohara tehsil.

     Chhui Khadan, Khairagarh, Dongargarh, Rajnandgaon, Ambagarh Chouki, Mohla, Manpur, Dongargaon, and Chhuria Tehsils of Rajnandgaon district, Kawardha, Pandaria, Bodla, and Sahaspur-Lohara of Kawardha districts are also included.

     Bhanupratappur, Antagarh, Pakhanjur and Durgkondal of Kanker district, Bijapur, Bhopalpatnam and Usur tehsils of Bijapur district and Marwahi and Mungeli of Bilaspur district have been declared drought hit, according to the government report.