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Govt to assess drought impact in 2 days: Jaswant

The government said that it will make a comprehensive assessment of the drought in a couple of days and assured that a "pragmatic solution-oriented approach" would be adopted to tackle the situation.

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh assured that there would be no "populism and competitive politicisation" to tackle the situation created by deficient monsoon.

The exact impact of deficient monsoon on economic growth would be known only in October, Singh said without elaborating if there could be a fall in GDP due to the drought this year.

Assuring that no politics was involved in granting relief to the affected states, Singh told a parliamentary consultative committee meeting that special assistance had already been given to Assam and Maharashtra to deal with floods.

Singh also endorsed the views of the Members of Parliament to consider writing-off bank dues of small farmers in areas, which have faced successive natural calamities for the past three or four years.

He also assured to look afresh into the rural employment schemes to meet new challenges.

During the meeting, majority of the members stressed the need for a long-term comprehensive policy to deal with natural calamity like drought.

It was felt that rural employment, drinking water and providing foodgrains in the affected regions needed special attention.

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