Concerned over the drought conditions likely to affect its electoral prospects in the forthcoming assembly polls in four states, the Congress Working Committee on Wednesday met in New Delhi to explore ways and means to deal with the situation.
The meeting, chaired by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh among others, will ask the government to speed up measures to tackle the problem.
The meeting comes at a time when assembly elections in four states -- Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Arunachal Pradesh -- are expected soon.
Of these, Maharashtra and Jharkhand have declared drought, partly or wholly.
The meeting was attended by Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Goa, Rajasthan, Delhi and Assam, besides Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony, P Chidambaram and Veerappa Moily.
The country has witnessed rainfall deficiency of 29 per cent and the number of districts reeling under drought or drought-like condition has gone up to 207.
The CWC had discussed the issue of price rise at its meeting in June when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had explained to the members the international economic scenario vis-a-vis the status of economy in the country.
With summer crops being affected because of deficient rains, the party apprehends that prices of food-grains could rise further if winter crops too are hit.
Image: A man walks through the parched banks of Sukhana Lake in Chandigarh
Photograph: Ajay Verma / Reuters
