The government will use its flagship programmes like the rural employment guarantee scheme to battle the effects of the drought. Besides, drought relief in other forms will be provided to states. Stocks of wheat and rice are adequate and will be used to meet any food shortage.

This was promised by prime minister Manmohan Singh at a meeting with chief ministers in the capital on Monday. He said the government had the elbowroom and flexibility to deal with the drought.

He appealed to the chief ministers to collectively tackle the drought with innovative solutions.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee assured the chief ministers that the empowered group of ministers would meet periodically to assess the ground situation and take on- the- spot decisions. The ministerial group may meet as early as Tuesday to recommend a series of measures to make foodgrain and edible oils available.

Mukherjee said that to take the drought head on, what needed to be done with priority was tackling water and fodder shortages, besides power cuts.

He had a word of praise for Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and asked other states to create water bodies, using the national rural employment guarantee scheme as was done in Gujarat.

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar asked the chief ministers to personally monitor the drought situation and take steps to hold prices of essential commodities.

Earlier the chief ministers of Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh presented the drought updates in their states to the prime minister and sought more money for the task.