Central team to visit drought-hit districts of West Bengal

They would call on Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and later visit eight districts in two groups.

The first group will visit West Midnapore, Birbhum, Bankura and Purulia districts, and the second team will move to North 24-Parganas, Nadia, Murshidabad and Malda districts.

State Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said the drought situation remained unchanged in eleven affected districts.

"The quantum of crop damage, which stood at Rs 954 crore, had jumped to Rs 1,713 crore," he added.

Eleven districts of the West Bengal have been declared as drought-hit and the state government has allocated Rs 50 crore to tackle the situation caused by a rain deficit of 30 per cent. 

According to forecast by the India Meteorological Department, total rainfall in the country as a whole during the August-September period is likely to be 107 per cent of the long period average, with a model error of plus/minus seven per cent.