Patna: With 48 per cent deficit rainfall a worried state government on Sunday rushed to initiate several measures such as Rs 50 per litre diesel subsidy to farmers and said it will review the situation on July 31 before the state is declared drought-hit.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday held a review meeting at his office, which was attended by state PHED minister Vinod Narayan Jha, state disaster management minister Dinesh Chandra Yadav, chief secretary Deepak Kumar, chief adviser to chief minister Anjani Kumar Singh, disaster management principal secretary Pratyaya Amrit and officials of other departments. It was the third meeting of the chief minister reviewing the drought-like situation looming over the state.

At present, farmers get a subsidy of Rs 40 for a litre of diesel and to irrigate an acre of land they need around 10 litres of diesel. A farmer is eligible to get subsidy for three irrigations of one crop. The Rs 50 diesel subsidy will be effective for farmers from Monday.

In the review meeting it was also decided to reduce the energy charges for irrigation by 21 paisa. At present, farmers pay 96 per unit as energy charges for irrigation purpose, which has been reduced to 75 paisa. Chief secretary Deepak Kumar said: "As the state has witnessed 48 per cent less rainfall than normal and with a drought-like situation looming on the state, several measures have been taken to tackle the situation. Officials from the agriculture department have been asked to distribute alternate crop seeds among farmers."

He added that directions have been issued to the electricity department to replace transformers within 48 hours once they receive complaints so that farmers don't face any problem in irrigating.

According to state government figures, against the normal rainfall of 417.3mm from June 1 to July 22, the state has witnessed just 222.2mm rainfall, which is nearly 48 per cent deficit. Some of the districts which have received highest deficit rainfall are Patna, Vaishali, Saran and Bhojpur. Only Banka and West Champaran have received rainfall above normal.

Only 19.42 per cent paddy transplantation has been done because of the deficit rainfall in the entire state. Against the target of cultivating paddy in 34,00,000 hectares of land, the actual transplantation has taken place on 6,60,397 hectares, which is 19.42 per cent of the target. The corresponding figures for maize are 4,75,000 and 2,78,247 hectares respectively, which is 58.58 per cent of the target.

The chief secretary said India Metrological Department has forecast that the state will witness good rainfall next week.