PATNA: Overall 170 people were killed so far in lightning and thunder-related incidences during the ongoing monsoon in Bihar. State disaster management department (DMD) informed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar during a review meeting on flood and drought here on Saturday.DMD principal secretary Pratyay Amrit said his department was planning to take assistance of the Earth Networks which provides early lightning warning.Some states in our country are already taking services of the Earth Networks, which has an expertise on providing early lightning warning services in more than 50 countries. It is also providing its services to Odisha, West Bengal, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and several other states, a DMD official told TOI.Chairing the review meeting, Nitish Kumar asked all the in charge ministers and principal secretaries to visit their designated districts on August 3 to review prevailing flood and drought situation.Earlier in the state, cabinet ministers were made ‘in charge minister’ of one or more districts. The in charge ministers were asked to hold meeting with their respective district-level flood monitoring committee and obtain detailed ground report of the flood scenario.Besides the deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi , cabinet ministers and senior officials of at least 12 departments were present at the review meeting, which continued for over six hours.The chief minister also interacted with majority of district magistrates (DMs) through video-conferencing and took detailed information about the flood, drought and the ongoing relief operation in the flood-affected areas.Nitish Kumar said he would hold another meeting in Patna on August 18 to review flood and drought situation in the state.Amrit also informed that the state government has signed an MoU with Isro on July 12 to get technical support for real-time assessment and monitoring of natural calamities.He said the state government has so far transferred Rs 502 crore in the bank accounts of around 8.36 lakh flood-affected families as gratuitous relief at the rate of Rs 6,000 per family.The agriculture department’s principal secretary Sudhir Kumar informed the CM about the steps being taken to estimate the loss of different crops in flood-hit areas. He also informed that a total of 214 blocks, mainly in south Bihar, have received less than average rainfall and there is possibility of drought-like situation there. He said farmers were being informed about alternative cropping where paddy crops were badly-hit due to poor rainfall.Speaking in details about the state government’s proposed “Jal, Jivan and Hariyali Abhiyan”, the CM asked the officials to complete all the formalities for launching the campaign across the district in near future.The CM said the chief secretary Deepak Kumar is compiling all the suggestion being received for protecting environment in the state. He asked the chief secretary to prepare a work plan for the Jal, Jivan and Hariyali Abhiyan before August 15.