Frame national policy to address drought: Supreme Court to govt

New Delhi, May 11: The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to revise its guidebook on declaring drought and also sought a mandatory time-frame for states to announce the extreme weather condition.

The top court made several recommendations while delivering its verdict on ‎a petition filed by an NGO seeking a standard policy for declaring drought, timely disbursement of crop loans, drought compensation and other relief packages.

The court also ordered creation of a disaster management force, mitigating plan and a disaster management fund to tackle the situation.

The court directed the agriculture secretary to sit with chief secretaries of Bihar, Haryana and Gujarat to review whether there is drought-like situation.

Stating that the nomenclature to declare drought should be standardised, the court asked the government to take into account farmers suicide, stress and migration factors while declaring drought.