The state has suffered nearly Rs 5,000 crore loss from the drought that has gripped the entire south Bengal districts.

“Last year by this time, about 27 lakh hectares had been under cultivation, and by August-end transplantation used to be completed on 42 lakh hectares. Even if it rains now it will be of hardly any use,” said a senior officer of agriculture department.

Though the state government had earlier assured that there was no cause to worry about any food scarcity, sources in the department said, the administration will have to gear up for tackling food crisis, if the Centre or the other state governments don’t come to Bengal’s aid.

According to the department, the southern districts of the state are still suffering from a 35 per cent rain deficit, and paddy transplantation has been carried out in only 19.55 lakh hectares of the total 34 lakh hectares of cultivable land in the area.

Meanwhile, the state government has increased the financial assistance for tackling drought from Rs 50 crore to Rs 87 crore. This was a decided at a meeting presided by finance minister Asim Dasgupta on Thursday. The meeting was attended by ministers and officials of agriculture, finance, disaster management and irrigation departments.

“We are going to send a memorandum to the Central government on Friday demanding more money for drought relief. The amount, however, will be decided tomorrow,” said Dasgupta.