Raichur: Minister for Revenue Jagadish Shettar on Wednesday has said that the Government has initiated steps to speed up ongoing relief works in the drought-affected taluks in the State and directed the respective district administrations to complete it expeditiously.

He told presspersons that 135 taluks in the State were affected by drought. The Government had taken all necessary steps to handle the drought situation effectively. But he received complaints from some taluks that relief works were going on at a slow pace owing to some technical problems. In this regard, the district administrations of respective taluks had been asked to solve such problems and speed up works, he said.

He informed that the State Government had asked the Centre to release Rs. 1,200 crore and nine lakh tonnes of foodgrains to implement relief works in the affected areas in the State. But it released Rs. 250 crore without supply of any foodgrains. However, the Centre had promised to release one lakh tonnes of foodgrains on receipt of report from the Central drought assessment team, which recently toured affected parts in the State.

In addition, the State Government had released Rs. 100 crore as its share and the funds had been distributed equally to all the district administrations to take up relief works, he added.

Relaxation of norms

In answer to a question, the Minister said that the Government had decided to implement the drought-relief works in the affected areas on the lines of ongoing relief works taken up under the National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (NREGS) in order to avoid exploitation of poor by the middle men and eliminate irregularities among the implementing authorities. However, the elected representatives (MLAs) of respective areas in the drought-affected taluks had raised objection to it.

In this regard, he would ask the Secretary of his department to release a fresh order relaxing such norms set earlier, he said.

Onion price

Asked about the failure of the State Government to protect the interest of onion growers, Mr. Shettar said the Government had released grants from its revolving funds to procure onion through the procurement centres at the minimum support price as was fixed by the Centre.

In case of Raichur, the Government had proposed to procure B-grade and C-grade onion. However, the farmers had been agitating seeking a higher price for A-grade onion. In this regard, he would talk to Agricultural Marketing Minister Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, he added.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail