Efforts are on to address drought-like conditions, says Parameshwara

"The State government is taking all steps to ensuring that the prevailing drought-like conditions are addressed properly,” Revenue Minister G. Parameshwara said in Belagavi on Thursday.

Speaking at the Belagavi division-level review meeting at the Suvarna Soudha, the Minister said that task forces are being constituted at the district and taluk levels.

Senior officers, including the Deputy Commissioner, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer and district and taluk level officers, should hold regular meetings and work towards resolving the problems that may arise, he said.

Dr. Parameshwara complained that the Union government has supplied only 50% of the State’s quota of fertilizers till now.

Most districts of North Karnataka are suffering from rainfall scarcity. The average deficiency is around 17% in North Karnataka.

"Officers should ensure that fodder kits are provided to farmers. All rain gauge stations should be modernized to know the exact amount of rainfall,” he said.

“All of us have to work in coordination with the Chief minister who has new ideas and perspective on the development of the State. The Deputy Commissioner, the Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer, the Superintendent of Police and other officers of all districts should go to the people and listen to their problems in order to maintain law and order along with development,” the Minister said.

"The Revenue Department has earned praise for digitising 140 crore pages of land records across the State. However, some work on digitisation is pending. For example, in the districts of Belagavi revenue division, digitization of 14.88% of the records is pending. This should be completed soon,” he said.

“We need to declare a total of 1,457 habitations as new revenue villages. Of them, preliminary notifications have been issued for 937 villages. The final notification is pending due to Census 2027. They will be declared once the Census is completed,” he said.