Haryana had 29% less rain in 2015

NEW DELHI: The Haryana Government on Tuesday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court maintaining that there was no droughtlike situation in the state in 2015 despite a 288 per cent shortfall in the monsoon rains in JuneSeptember

Updated At : 01:03 AM Apr 20, 2016 IST

A farmer looks skyward in his parched paddy field. Tribune file photo

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, April 19

The Haryana Government on Tuesday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court, maintaining that there was no “drought-like situation” in the state in 2015 despite a 28.8 per cent shortfall in the monsoon rains in June-September.

The state received just 36.3 cm of rains against the ten-year average of 51 cm, but this did not affect farm output as 83 per cent of irrigation was being taken care of by river canals and tube wells, the affidavit submitted by Additional Advocate General Anil Grover said.

A Bench comprising Justices MB Lokur and NV Ramana had earlier questioned Haryana for its refusal to declare drought despite deficient rainfall, a primary indicator for the purpose under the Centre’s manual and guidelines meant for providing adequate and timely relief to the affected people, particularly the poor.

“The case is about people’s lives, not about any picnic in Haryana,” the Supreme Court had told the state counsel after noticing that the government had taken the issue casually and not even bothered to file its affidavit in response to the court notice on a PIL.

In Tuesday’s affidavit, the state government acknowledged that the shortage of rainfall was more than 50 per cent in six districts – Rohatak (64 pc), Hisar (62 pc), Mohindergarh (61 pc), Fatehabad (60 pc), Panchkula (52 pc) and Sirsa (51 pc).

As on April 1, 2016, only 335 of 7,958 habitations in the state had faced deficient drinking water against the requirement of 40 litres per person a day. The state government was however meeting the requirement through tankers that carried water from canals and tubewells.

“It is humbly submitted that in the state of Haryana, there was no drought like situation during 2015,” the affidavit said.

The Bench is hearing a PIL by NGO Swaraj Abhiyan seeking a directive to 12 states to declare drought. The other states are Gujarat, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.