Cong. wants rice rushed to drought-hit areas

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, AUG. 21. The Congress-I has demanded that the rice stocks allotted to the State under the Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) be rushed immediately to the drought-hit areas to prevent migration of people.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, the APCC-I official spokesman, Mr.K.Rosaiah, said the Centre had allotted three lakh tonnes of rice to be distributed under the EAS in the 22 districts in August and September.

Of the 1.5 lakh tonnes meant for distribution in August, not a single tonne was lifted by the State Government despite repeated requests from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) in this regard.

Mr. Rosaiah said the Chief Minister, Mr.N.Chandrababu Naidu, sought an additional three lakh tonnes of rice under EAS during his recent visit to Delhi but even allocated stocks,to be cleared by September end, were not touched.

`ST dispute settlement scheme discriminatory'

The Congress-I leader insisted that the sales tax settlement of dispute scheme announced by the Government is discriminatory against the honest taxpayer and that the explanation of the Minister of Finance, Mr.Y.Ramakrishnudu, in this context was not convincing.

He alleged that the Minister skirted the main issue of reduction in the tax rate by 50 per cent for those availing of the scheme to clear the tax dues. The Income Tax dispute settlement schemes cited the Minister would not justify the Governmental action favouring the tax evaders. In the IT scheme, the main tax rate was not touched and only penalties were waived.

Mr. Rosaiah said there was no justification in citing a similar scheme in vogue in Maharashtra, "as there is no need to copy ill- conceived schemes".

The Congress-I spokesman was critical of the "irrational manner" engineering seats are being increased in the State even as counselling was in progress. The number of engineering seats had gone upto 45,000 and some colleges are being allowed in the eleventh hour. Four old colleges were allotted additional seats of 150 each. No proper assessment had been done about the requirement of the engineering hands.

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Section  : Southern States
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