Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Ministerial team presses State's demands

P. Venugopal

Achuthanandan seeks Rs.2,000-crore package of assistance to farmers in the State

ADVOCATING THE STATE'S CAUSE: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan calls on Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia at his office in New Delhi on Friday. - Photo: Ramesh Sharma

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala expects to sort out several pressing issues requiring the Union Government's help during the visit of a high-level Ministerial team led by Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan to New Delhi on Friday and Saturday.

According to the Chief Minister's office, the team had a hectic schedule on Friday, visiting the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Home Minister Shivaraj Patil and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to discuss with them the State's issues and seek their help.

Vice-Chairman of the State Planning Board Prabhat Patnaik, Education Minister M.A. Baby, Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, Agriculture Minister K.P. Rajendran and Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy are part of the delegation.

Priority issues

Later he addressed a meeting of the Kerala cadre Civil Service officials serving in New Delhi on Central deputation and presented before them the high-priority issues of the State pending with the Centre. He sought their assistance in speeding up action on these issues.

An immediate outcome of Friday's efforts was the decision taken by the Home Minister to send a team of officials from the Disaster Management Cell to Kerala on Tuesday to take stock of the damage caused by the monsoon so far. Mr. Shivraj Patil reportedly promised the Chief Minister action on the State's request for relief as soon as the officials returned to New Delhi with their report.

Two issues that figured prominently during the Ministerial team's discussion with Mr. Chidambaram and Dr. Ahluwalia related to the crisis in the farm sector in the State and the ceiling on borrowings the Centre had imposed on the State in February this year.

Mr. Achuthanandan sought a Rs.2,000-crore package of assistance to the farmers of the State on the lines of the one the Prime Minister had recently announced for the farmers of Vidharbha. He narrated the travails of the farmers, for whom existence had become very difficult in recent years owing to the fall in prices of their commodities. Over 1,500 farmers had committed suicide in the State during the last five years as per unofficial data, he told them.

Borrowing limit

He also told them that the Centre's decision to slash the State's borrowing limit to Rs.4,672 crores this financial year would make it impossible for the State to carry out the Planning Commission-approved annual Plan of Rs.6,210 crores.

The State, burdened by high revenue expenses and diminishing Central fund devolution, needed to borrow Rs.7,246 crores this year to do justice to the annual Plan.

Mr. Chidambaram and Dr. Ahluwalia, reportedly, assured Mr. Achuthanandan that they would consider these demands.

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