'Govt. unable to provide drought relief in time'

By Our Staff Correspondent

GULBARGA, AUG. 23. The Chief Minister, Mr. S.M.Krishna, has once again cautioned that the State Government is passing through a bad patch financially, and it is finding it difficult to provide relief to the drought-affected people in 146 taluks.

Addressing a press conference after visiting goshals at Bannur and Taj Sultanpur on the outskirts of Gulbarga city, and after visiting Kagganamaddi Cross where the district administration had taken up food-for-work drought relief work, the Chief Minister said : ``The resources of the Government are not unlimited, and it is keen on maintaining a clean slate as far as overdraft (OD) is concerned.'' He said the Government was unable to meet the officials' request for funds fully. The issue had been taken up with the Union Government with a plea for early release of funds for drought relief. So far, the Centre had released Rs. 71 crores from the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF). This included the State Government's share of Rs. 28 crores.

The report of the Central study team, which toured the drought- hit areas, was pending with the committee of ministers headed by the Union Agriculture Minister, Mr. Ajit Singh. The State Government expected a positive response from the Centre, Mr. Krishna added. Meanwhile, the State Government had decided to mobilise resources from all development departments and hasten the process of budgeted development works to provide more employment to the affected people. Commissioners had been put in- charge of drought relief works to co-ordinate the work with the heads of department heads.

He said the State Government had declared 146 of the 175 taluks as drought affected. The loans taken by farmers in these districts would be rescheduled. The Government had bypassed the usual practice of declaring a taluk or a district drought-hit only after crop cutting experiments at the end of the season were completed. This was done after taking into consideration the extraordinary drought in the State.

Asked if the Government would direct the KPTCL to stop the recovery of dues from farmers (who had irrigation pumpsets) due to drought, Mr. Krishna said the KPTCL was also passing through difficult times, and it had a deficit of Rs. 2,000 crores. He declined to comment on the demand of the farmers to stop the recovery drive.

Mr. Krishna indicated that the mid-day meal scheme for schoolchildren would in all probability would be launched in the seven districts of North Karnataka on October 2.

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Section  : Southern States
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