The circular to grant financial aid to farmers who have lost their crops due to the dry spell will be issued this week, Disaster Management Centre Director General L S Senadheera said. Speaking to the Daily News yesterday he said a Rs 10,000 monthly payment would be facilitated to each affected farming family from March 15 for a period of three months. He stated as calculated, over 500,000 families would be entitled to this financial support. He said the money would be directly sent to the bank accounts of the farmers, adding that the procedure would be similar to that of distributing fertiliser subsidy.
He said the Treasury agreed to disburse required amount of money for the purpose during the Presidential Task Force meeting held recently.
“The Task Force meets once in every two weeks to assess the latest situation and take necessary decisions. In the last few days, rainfall was recorded in several drought affected areas,such as, Batticoloa, Jaffna, Mannar and Galle lessoning the effect of drought. Still the drought continues unabated in Kurunegala and Puttalam and parts of Matale, Ampara, Ratnapura and Hambantota. We are coordinating necessary facilities and relief to these areas,” he explained.
However, he said the necessity to declare an ‘emergency situation’ does not arise, as the Meteorological Department has predicted showers after April and the prevailing disaster situation could be managed.
Meanwhile, an adjournment motion on “Food, Water and Power Crisis due to the Extreme Drought Condition prevailing in the Country” will be moved by the UPFA in Parliament on Friday.
Disaster Management Minister Anura Yapa, Water Supply and Drainage Minister Rauf Hakeem and Power and Renewable Energy Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya are to give details on the impact of drought in each of their rounds during this debate.
According to the Ceylon Electricity Board website, out of the total power generation the hydro power generation has dropped to about 7 percent, while thermal power generation (coal and oil) has risen to 91 percent as of Saturday.
According to the DMC situation report as at yesterday, about 1.2 million people belonging to about 300,000 families in 16 districts have been affected by the drought.
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