"Even though the agriculture production in several drought-hit villages falling under the talukas of North Gujarat's Sabarkantha, Patan, Mehsana and Banaskantha districts had gone down below 25 per cent, the Government had not cared to declare them scarcity areas," Chaudhary said. He said the situation in these drought-hit talukas was so bad that hundreds of people from there had started migrating to other areas seeking employment. "The people in these areas are facing scarcity of both agriculture produce and drinking water," Chaudhary said.

He said around 11 talukas in Banaskantha, six talukas in Patan and four talukas in Sabarkanta were facing severe drought. According to Chaudhary, as per the Scarcity Manual specifications, any drought-hit village, where production goes down below 25 per cent, should be declared a scarcity area.

"We, therefore, demand that the State Government declare all these talukas as scarcity areas," Chaudhary said.