Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Cyclone relief works not tardy, says Minister

By Our Special Correspondent

VIJAYAWADA, JAN. 13. The Agriculture Minister, Vadde Shobanadreeswara Rao, on Tuesday refuted the charge of the Krishna Delta Parirakshana Samiti that the relief works in the cyclone-affected parts of the district were moving at a tardy pace.

Addressing a press conference, the Minister wondered how members of the Samiti had given a call for a mass dharna on January 30 despite the fact that the Government had initiated relief measures less than 48 hours after the cyclone caused extensive damage to standing crop. The Samiti members should stop politicising relief works by criticising the Government, he said.

He said despite the fact that no Central assistance had been received till now, the Government sanctioned Rs 40 crores as immediate relief of which Rs 27 crores had already been distributed as seed subsidy. The Central teams were also expected to arrive in the State shortly for assessing crop damage and the Government had initiated measures to provide maximum relief to affected farmers. In addition to providing required seed with 90 per cent subsidy, the Government was procuring discoloured, sprouted and shrivelled grain through the Civil Supplies Corporation by relaxing the norms. Orders were also issued to the authorities to ensure that minimum support price be paid for the crops with less than 52 per cent refraction and at least 66 per cent of the MSP for the grain where refractions were in excess of 52 per cent. There were, however, some delays in the procurement due to shortage of staff as a majority of employees were busy with electoral rolls revision. But, the Government had initiated the necessary measures to ensure that the grain was procured from farmers, he said appealing to farmers not to resort to distress sale of their produce.

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