Rajasthan government today informed the Assembly that there has been a deficit of about 24 per cent in rainfall in the state till July 30 due to delayed arrival of monsoon and it will carry out crop assessment this month end if the trend continued.
During a brief debate on "drought situation", Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister G C Kataria said there were signs of drought or scarcity in the state, but in view of the last week's rainfall the state could emerge out of the drought situation.
"We will wait for the good rains till August 15, and if it does not improve the state would go for 'girdwari' (crop assessment) by the end of August.
District Collectors and Panchayat-level officials will be ordered to conduct crop assessment after sowing, Kataria said.
As against a target of sowing in 157 lakh hectare, sowing was done in 97 lakh hectares, which is just 62 per cent, he said.
During the debate, a number of Congress MLAs including Pradhyuman Singh and Govind Singh Dotasar asked the state government to prepare a contingency plan to meet the challenge of drought looming over the state.
Earlier, there was an uproar in the House for 10 minutes when Parliamentary Minister R S Rathor had asked the Opposition members to wind up the debate as the Chief Minister had hosted a dinner and movie show for MLAs in the evening.
Opposition Congress Whip Govind Singh strongly objected to Rathor's advise, saying the House was meant for farmers and poor people who were waiting for relief from the government on account of probable drought in 23 of 33 districts.
Singh said if the BJP members desired, they could leave the House for "good food and movie".
Speaker Kailsah Meghwal asked Opposition to hold 10 minutes of debate on drought and keep five minutes for government's reply on the matter. But this too was not accepted by the Opposition.
Rathor then offered an open debate which lasted for about 35 minutes.
