The Hindu : Kerala News : State team in Delhi seeking drought relief

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 06, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

State team in Delhi seeking drought relief

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 5. With the political leadership preoccupied with the Lok Sabha elections, a team of bureaucrats from Kerala was in the capital today to seek Central assistance for tiding over the financial crisis facing the State due to drought. In all, the State is seeking Rs. 2,844.90 crores from the National Calamity & Contingency Fund (NCCF) besides two lakh tonnes of rice under Swaranjayanti Gramin Rozgar Yojana.

The four-member team, which includes the Chief Secretary, N. Chandrasekharan Nair, the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Gopalakrishna Pillai, the Finance (Principal) Secretary, Sudha Pillai, and the Revenue (Principal) Secretary, Sunderasan, met the Secretaries of the Union Ministries of Home, Rural Development and Agriculture during the course of the day with their memorandum.

The Central officials told the State team that they would have to first assess the need of the State and for this a Central team would have to be sent. However, with elections round the corner, the officials said they would have to first seek the permission of the Election Commission to send a team to the State. Following this, the State team met the Election Commission this evening with the plea that elections should not come in the way of drought relief.

According to the estimate presented to the Centre, Rs. 412.33 crores has been sought for supply of drinking water through tankers, Rs. 75.64 crores for augmentation of Kerala Water Authority schemes, Rs. 1,479.02 crores for crop loss compensation/supply of seed, Rs. 158.91 crores for fire protection and drought mitigation and Rs. 720 crores for the financial loss incurred due to purchase of power from elsewhere.

Earlier this year, the State Government had made out a case for allocation of Rs. 1,359 crores, but the Centre had agreed to release Rs. 49.04 crores after its assessment team submitted its report and estimate of the loss incurred by the State.

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