Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Coop polls soon, says Chikkala

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD March 26. The Cooperation Minister, Chikkala Ramachandra Rao, has signalled the Government's intention to hold elections to cooperative bodies soon.

Replying to the debate on the demands for agriculture and allied sectors in the Assembly on Wednesday, Mr. Ramachandra Rao said the delay in conducting the polls was on account of an amendment to the Cooperative Societies Act to study which a Cabinet Sub-Committee was constituted. The Act was amended to provide the voting right to members with a minimum standing of one year. There were about 1.39 crore members, he said.

The minister said that the Government did not resort to forcible recovery of loans from farmers where there were no crop yields on account of drought. The loans were being rescheduled or farmers were given the option of one-time settlement. A 5 per cent interest rebate was given on loans this year amounting to Rs. 81.61 crores.

The Marketing Minister, D. Anjaneyulu, said the department would finance small and marginal farmers on lift-irrigation schemes.

The Congress MLA, A. Vivekananda Reddy, who spoke on the demands, wanted a reserve fund for the welfare of farmers. He appealed to the Government to hike the budgetary allocation for agriculture which was 2.68 per cent of the total budget for 2003- 2004. The allocation was just 1.71 per cent in 2001-2002.

Mr. Reddy also said that the 1.80 crore ryots in the State got on an average Rs. 1,800 Government subsidy per annum. This should be hiked to at least Rs. 18,000. The US Government extended a subsidy of $ 49 millions to only 20 lakh farmers and it had committed to Parliament last year to continue the subsidy policy for six years.

The State Government spent only Rs. 79 a hectare as against Rs. 1,089 a hectare spent by the Haryana Government, he added.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Heated exchanges over G.O. in House
• Death of `RK' major blow to PW
• Top IAS official alleges smear campaign
• Impact of drought on urban areas too
• Irregularities in land deals: 30 officials face action
• Heated debate over allotment of house sites to MLAs
• Move to replace APCC chief
• Coop polls soon, says Chikkala

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu