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No curbs on funds for drought relief: Minister

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JAN. 20. The Finance Minister, K Sankaranarayanan, today said in the Assembly that there would be no curbs on the withdrawal of funds from the State Treasury for carrying out drought relief work.

Intervening when the House was discussing a calling-attention motion moved by V. Chenthamarakshan of the CPI (M), Mr. Sankaranarayanan refuted the MLA's charge that cheques issued for drought relief work were not being honoured. He said that he would only be too happy to take strong action if the MLA were to produce the cheques, which he alleged were dishonoured.

Replying to the calling-attention motion, the Agriculture Minister, K. R. Gouri, said that the State Government had released Rs. 2 crores each to the districts towards drought relief. She said that the Cabinet sub-committee had held a sitting in the drought-affected district of Palakkad and announced several sops for the agriculturists facing a testing time. The sops included rescheduling of crop loans and compensation for loss of crop.

Moving the motion, Mr. Chenthamarakshan said that the farmers of Palakkad, considered to be the granary of Kerala, had been put to great hardships owing to the acute drought the district had been facing and the widespread destruction of crops. He wanted the Government to take urgent action to mitigate the farmers' problems.

Replying to another calling-attention motion, moved by K. K. Ramachandran Master of the Congress, the Agriculture Minister promised to ensure new agriculture development schemes in the budget to improve production, productivity and marketing of farm produce. She said that the State Government had spent the entire sum allocated under the special package for agriculture earmarked in the current year's budget.

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