'Drought has affected 1/4th of the population'
Drought has affected nearly one-fourth of the country's population and impacted over 1.5 lakh villages, the Government informed the Lok Sabha. The Government had allocated ₹1,360 crore to states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Karnataka well before the drought, Union Minister Birender Singh said. It also sought a "national consensus" on the issue of interlinking of rivers.