Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Govt. sanctions Rs. 324.32-cr. drought relief

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI May 28. The Tamil Nadu Government has sanctioned Rs. 324.32 crores as drought relief following the failure of both southwest and northeast monsoon and non-release of Cauvery water by Karnataka last year.

The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, in a release here today said while a compensation of Rs. 2,500 a hectare would be given to farmers who lost 50 per cent of their crops in the kuruvai, samba and thaladi crops, Rs. 1,000 would be sanctioned for rain-fed crops.

In the case of permanent crops, the compensation was fixed at Rs. 4,000 per hectare and Rs. 1,000 per hectare for mulberry cultivators.

Farmers who could not raise any crop

in irrigated areas would be paid Rs. 1,250 a hectare while those in the rainfed areas, Rs. 500 per hectare.

The relief would be given up to a maximum of two hectares.

Ms. Jayalalithaa said the District Collectors had identified the list of affected farmers who would get the relief through local primary agricultural cooperative banks.

About 49.96 lakh farmers were to benefit.

Apart from this, she said the Government had planned to create 12 crore mandays of work under the food-for-work programme till the on-set of the northeast monsoon.

So far 1.34 crore mandays had been generated and 1.25 lakh tonnes of rice distributed, including about 60,000 tonnes in the current month.

Another 2.25 lakh tonnes of rice would be distributed under the programme, the release said.

Plea for monitoring panel

Meanwhile, the Tamilnadu Vivasaigal Sangam has demanded a monitoring committee to oversee distribution of drought relief.

The committee should consist of representatives from farmers associations to ascertain whether the relief has actually reached the affected farmers.

Describing the drought relief of Rs. 350 crores as pittance compared to the total crop loss of Rs. 2,000 crores, the general secretary, V. Duraimanickam, in a release urged the Government to issue necessary instructions to cooperative banks for waiving the interest on loans.

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