Sharad Pawar dismisses possibility of draught

Sharad PawarUnion Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Sunday hoped that monsoon will soon advance further, ruling out draught like situation in any part of the country. In the meantime, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasted that south-west monsoon may hit north-west region including Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir after July 1. The department has forecasted isolated rain or thundershowers in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in next two days.

Mr. Pawar added, "There is absolutely no need for any panic or worry. This trend of delayed monsoon activity is nothing new. As Agriculture Minister at the Centre, and in Maharashtra before that, I have seen such a trend. Even last year there were good rains in the beginning. After that there was a lull for a week. Again it started raining and again stopped for one to two weeks. Thereafter it continued to rain heavily."

He said that the union government is ready to face any eventuality due to inadequate or delayed monsoon. It is optimistic to achieve better food production targets this year. He added that Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and the Telangana areas of Andhra Pradesh have recorded good rainfall and no need to worry about rains in the remaining areas of the country in the back drop of IMD forecasts of 93 per cent rain in July and 101 per cent in August.