Drought update

Uh-oh, within two days of posting the link to an article from 2003 about Mahbubnagar, look what happened today (see below)

As Sainath would contend, the coverage of the event by The Hindu is as an "event" rather than a "process" i.e. the govts response is treated as a being in response to the event of farmer suicides. Yet again it remains to seen if this typical governmental response to such an 'event' by a onetime doling out of a large sum of money will make any difference to the processes underlying Mahbubnagar's woes.

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PM announces Rs. 45-lakh package for AP village

Mahbubnagar (AP), July 1. (PTI): Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, today announced a package of Rs 45 lakhs for the development of Dharmapur -- a backward village in Andhra Pradesh's Mahbubnagar district.

Singh, who interacted for about 35-minutes, with the 13 family members of farmers, who committed suicide at Dharmapur, about eight km. from the district headquarters, assured them that the Centre and State Government will provide all possible help to the farmers to tide over their financial crisis.

Providing solace to family members, Singh announced Rs. 50,000 each to the kin of the deceased from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. Of the Rs. 45 lakhs to be spent on development of villages, Rs. 16 lakhs will be spent for the construction of hostel buildings, Rs. 8 lakhs for
building four classrooms in a high school, Rs. 8 lakhs for drinking water, Rs. 8 lakhs for construction of pucca roads and Rs. 5 lakhs as special assistance for the village Gram Panchayat.

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