PM urged to sanction liberal aid to tackle drought

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, AUG. 9. The leader of Congress-I Legislature Party (CLP), Dr.Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy, has requested the Prime Minister, Mr.Atal Behari Vajpayee, to bestow his attention on the grim drought situation in the State and sanction liberal financial assistance.

In a four-page letter to Mr.Vajpayee, Dr.Reddy alleged that the State Government had failed to meet the situation and sought Central intervention to ensure a financial assistance of Rs 1 crore each for the 911 drought-affected mandals.

He drew the attention of the Prime Minister to the reported remarks of the Union Minister for Rural Development that the State Government was diverting Central assistance for unproductive schemes and publicity and urged him to ensure that the Central aid was spent only on drought relief works.

The letter details the drought conditions due to huge deficit rainfall in different districts, the crop losses, the plight of agricultural labourers for want of work and the severe shortage of drinking water and fodder.

The Leader of the Opposition further charged that the State Government had adopted an indifferent attitude on the ground that the farmers were accustomed to natural calamities. The State was in the grip of drought for eight of the last ten years. The water table had drastically receded despite the Government incurring an expenditure of Rs 600 crores under the Chief Minister's pet scheme, Neeru Meeru.

Dr. Reddy also referred to the suicide by farmers in the State and the problems faced by them due to denial of Minimum

Support Price on their produce.

He specifically urged the Prime Minister to arrange for supply of fodder on war footing to the State, an ex gratia of Rs 1500 per acre towards damaged crop, seeds free of cost, waival of electricity bills, supply of ten lakh tonnes of rice for public distribution system, free supply of 50 kg of rice for the agricultural labourers and arrest of migration of labour by sanctioning works under the Employment Assurance Scheme or Food for Work.

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Section  : Southern States
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