After declaring drought in 44 of Uttar Pradesh’s 75 districts, the Samajwadi Party government on Thursday raised a demand for Central assistance of Rs 6138.42 crore to compensate affected farmers. Following a meeting with a team of officials from the Union agriculture ministry, UP chief secretary Alok Ranjan said UP needed the Central financial assistance under the state’s working plan for drought. Identifying different heads to the team of officials led by Union agricul ture joint secretary Utpal Kumar Singh, UP said it needed Rs 999.33 crore for the state's agriculture department, Rs 20.57 crore for horticulture, Rs 71.06 crore for fisheries department, Rs 1162 crore for power corporation, Rs 91.39 crore for irrigation and water resources, Rs 639.76 crore for animal husbandry , Rs 258.65 crore for minor irrigation, Rs 9.11 crore for ground water department, Rs 38.67 crore for health, Rs 1498.10 crore for irrigation department, Rs 555.03 crore for Jal Nigam and Rs 109.25 crore for the forest department. The UP government also said it had appointed nodal officers in each department to coordinate and assist the Central team during its three-day tour and inspection of the drought-hit districts. While Singh is scheduled to lead the tour of Kanpur city, rural and Jalaun, other members of the team will head to Mathura, Aligarh and Badaun, Agra, Etah and Kannauj districts for inspection. After examining the ex tent of damage to crop and plantation, drinking water supply and feed stock for animals, the Central team will meet UP officials again on September 27 to deliberate over the amount of funds that will be released to UP for drought mitigation and compensation purposes. At present, UP government has deferred collection of revenue from all 44 affected districts until March 2015. Ranjan also said the Centre had been requested to provide relief as per the action plan prepared by departments to expedite relief work.