Subsidy rice price fixed at Rs. 5.50

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, APRIL 10. The Cabinet has enhanced the price of subsidy rice to Rs. 5.50 a kg, up by Rs. 2, as an inevitable offshoot of steep hike in the issue price by the Centre. It takes immediate effect.

It has also decided to declare 76 more mandals in five (drought- affected0 districts, thereby covering 688 out of the total 810 rural mandals in the State.

``It (hike in rice price) is a very painful decision thrust on us by the Government of India. There is no alternative. We have tried our best to safeguard the interests of the poor,'' the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, said at a post-Cabinet news conference on Monday.

Mr. Naidu prefaced the announcement with an elaborate exposition of his `compulsions' and the precarious finances of the State. The Rs. 2-a- kg increase just about neutralised the additional burden of Rs. 400 crores imposed by the hike in issue price.

The sudden slapping of the hike, he said, came about even as the State was reeling under the impact of similar hikes relating to kerosene, cooking gas and fertilizer and when the Government was burdened with mounting unpaid bills of last year

The Chief Minister was evidently sore with Delhi for not translating the decision to give 29 per cent of the total central tax revenues to the states and instead putting 'squeeze' on the State's finances. The State would have got Rs. 434 crores every year if the 29 per cent share was given. Pay revision to the staff placed an unbearable burden of Rs. 1,750 crores. Answering questions, he said that there was no plan to 'modify' excise policy to net more revenue or to prune white ration cards. As it were, the 1.13 crore cards covered 71 per cent of the population. Efforts to weed out bogus cards met with stiff resistance.

Foolproof and updated data would be gathered by integrating data obtained from multi-purpose household survey and geographical information systems (GIS). The idea was to weed out bogus cards and give them to the real poor.

The Government preceded earlier hikes by issue of white papers and debates. Why not this time?. Mr. Naidu replied he had wanted to issue a white paper on the finances, but could not do so due to municipal elections, sudden death of A. Madhava Reddy and other factors. It would be released shortly.

On the proposed agitation by the opposition parties, he said Government and the TDP would face it.

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Section  : Regional
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