Drought in crores: How will India pay?

Millions of farmers could be affected as the country faces a drought this year, but there's politics even here.

At a meeting with the Prime Minister on Monday on the drought situation, the Chief Ministers had a long list of demands.

If the UP chief minister Mayawati wanted 2000 crore rupees to pay for 10 hours of power supply in states 58 drought-hit districts, then Andhra Chief Minister YSR Reddy sought the same amount to be sanctioned for his state under the NREGA scheme to provide employment to the farming community.

And Bihar's Nitish Kumar asked for 23,000 crore rupees to meet the financial burden caused by the drought in the state.

"We had already sent a memorandum. But now I've written another letter to Prime Minister, asking him to help us," the Bihar Chief Minister said.

But at a time when the economy is still in early stages of recovery from the economic slowdown, shelling out such huge packages may not be an option for the govt. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who separately met all chief ministers, says states already have resources to do more.

"Some states have taken effective action, most of the states have not had raised this issue in meeting with Chief Secretaries and raising it again in the meeting with CMs."

The government focus is to explore the possibility of planting Rabi crops earlier this year. The drought is not only a human but also a hot political issue with the main Opposition party is already protesting against price rise.