16 districts of Gujarat facing deficient rainfall: Centre report

According to the report prepared by the Department of Drinking Water Supply under the central Ministry of Rural Development at least 41 districts, 15 of which fall in Uttar Pradesh, had received scanty rainfall, while a whopping number of 271 districts had received deficient rainfall. The States with the largest number of districts having received deficient rainfall are Uttar Pradesh(38), Madhya Pradesh(32), Rajasthan(27), Bihar(20), Maharashtra(17), Gujarat(16), Andhra Pradesh(15), Chhatisgarh(13) and Tamil Nadu(13) and Haryana(11).

The Centre fears the situation to get critical in some of the rain deficient areas especially after February 2010 till the arrival of the next monsoon. The Centre has directed the States to immediately prepare the contingency plan including transportation of water along with the estimates for sanction.

Only 169 districts in the country had received normal rainfall while 46 others had received rainfall in excess of normal.

Only Orissa had marginally received excess rainfall, as did Karnataka minus the Western Ghats. The deficiency ranged up to 35 percent in other cases.