39 tahsils drought-hit in MP

Bhopal, Feb 22 (UNI) Thirty-nine tahsils spread over nine districts of Madhya Pradesh have been declared drought-hit.

In a written reply to Mr Ajay Singh (Congress), Revenue Minister Kamal Patel said in the Assembly today that employment-oriented relief work was underway.

''The state's foodgrain production was 159.5 lakh tonnes and 142.9 lakh tonnes in 2003-04 and 2004-05 respectively,'' Agriculture Minister Chaudhry Chandrabhan Singh said in response to a question by Mr Sajjan Singh Verma (Cong).

Thus, there has been a decline of 10.4 per cent, mainly due to 21 districts being drought-affected.

UNI