Monsoon delayed, govt presses panic button

New Delhi: The delay in monsoons has now begun to worry the Central Government which has called a meeting of all central Indian states.

Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekhar, too, held a meeting on Saturday to take stock of situation arising out of a delayed monsoon. The government is worried about the rise in food prices and the hit to agriculture if the rains are delayed further.

It is expected that monsoons will revive over the next five days in central India. However, the government is not taking any chances and has asked the 10 worst affected states to come prepared with their contingency plans to Delhi.

"Monsoon should restart around the 25th (June 25). That is the forecast as of now. So we will take further call on June 25 because it might be slightly less. Even the normal prediction is 96 +/-5 per cent. So that way it would be slightly less. We are calling the states on 25th. Those states which are likely to have delay in or deficient monsoon... about 10 states will be called and we have asked them to bring some contingency plan in case there is a delay or a deficiency," said Agriculture Secretary Nand Kumar.

But why are the monsoons delayed?

The rain gods smiled on Mumbai on Saturday morning but the bad news is the monsoon has still not arrived in the city.

It has been over 10 days since the southwest monsoon stopped advancing from the Kerala coast.

Ideally monsoon should have hit Mumbai by June 10 and by June 15 it should have reached Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, parts of Uttar Pradesh and by June 29 in Delhi.

But the monsoon current has weakened due to Cyclone Aila with Maharashtra, Orissa and north Andhra Pradesh still parched.

Monsoon has also been delayed over Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and southern Madhya Pradesh and south Gujarat.

But the Met Department has been claiming that the monsoon current is strengthening especially over the western coast.

"The Westerlies are not strong enough to usher into the country. But around June 25 we expect the monsoon will advance into the remaining parts of Konkan, Goa and parts of Maharashtra," hoped Dr P C S Rao, Director, IMD.

In the next two-three days monsoon is likely to advance over some more parts of Maharashtra including Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

But central India may still have to wait for another week. It will take even longer to arrive in Delhi and other northern areas.

The rain received across the country has been less than 45 per cent the normal figure for June and if the monsoon does not pick up, it could have severe repercussions.

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