Asks the Union government to give assurance of assistance at the earliest New Delhi: Finance Minister Eatala Rajender urged the Centre...
Asks the Union government to give assurance of assistance at the earliest
New Delhi: Finance Minister Eatala Rajender urged the Centre to immediately release funds for the State government to bail out the farmers who had suffered heavy losses as a result of the unseasonal rainfalls and hailstorms which had badly affected the standing crops. He asked the Centre to release funds without waiting for the preliminary report from the State under the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) as an immediate measure to alleviate the distress of the farmers.
He brought to the notice of the Central government that the there was no money left in the SDRF scheme and what was left in it had been utilised and sought immediate release of funds for this financial year. Eatala met Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh and briefed him about the farmers who had to endure unexpected and unfriendly weather conditions, which had resulted in huge losses of their crops.
Finance Minister Eatala Rajender calling on Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi on Wednesday
However, Radha Mohan Singh told the Minister that the Centre had doubled the amount to the States under the SDRF scheme and assured to assist the State at the earliest. Singh also spoke to the State Disaster Management Authority Chairman G R Meena. In a memorandum to the Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution System, Eatala asked to increase the allocation of food grains citing that the State government had witnessed increased intake of students in social welfare hostels and also for giving six kilos in place of four kilos of rice to the people and the large number of BPL families in the newly-created State unlike in residuary Andhra Pradesh.
Eatala asked the Centre to conduct a new survey to identify the BPL families and other beneficiaries in the wake of bifurcation of united Andhra Pradesh rather than taking 52:48 ratio while allocating food grains. The State government wanted 9,000 metric tons of rice from the existing 3,000 metric tons, the Minister demanded the Centre.
