The Hindu : Rs. 2000 cr. drought relief package

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 17, 2002

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Rs. 2000 cr. drought relief package

By Gargi Parsai

New Delhi Nov. 16. The Centre today announced a Rs. 2000 crore relief package from the National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) for the 14 drought affected States. It also announced additional foodgrains for Rajasthan and Orissa where starvation deaths have been reported.

The decisions, taken at a two-hour long meeting of the Task Force on Drought, chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, were announced by the Union Agriculture Minister, Ajit Singh.

The meeting also decided to allocate another Rs. 12 crores to Rajasthan which is worst hit by drought, western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for fodder. An additional allocation of 5 lakh tonnes of foodgrains for Rajasthan and one lakh tonnes for Orissa was also announced. Mr. Ajit Singh said the relief package was based on the prescribed norms of the 11th Finance Commission.

Among those who attended the meeting were the Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, the Food and Public Distribution Minister, Sharad Yadav, the Rural Development Minister, Shanta Kumar, and the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, K.C. Pant.

The prolonged meeting saw Mr. Ajit Singh strongly pleading for the relief package which has been worked out by his Ministry. The Ministry's recommendation was approved earlier by the Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG), headed by the Agriculture Secretary. Mr. Singh was backed by Mr Shanta Kumar. Mr Sharad Yadav left earlier.

The NCCF has a corpus of Rs. 500 crores, and at one point during the meeting it was thought the relief package should be limited within this amount. But later Mr. Advani agreed to the IMG's recommendation. States which had not submitted the utilisation certificates for use of finances from the Calamities Relief Fund (CRF) - which is their share - may not get the benefit of the new package unless they do so.

The Agriculture Ministry will work out the allocation to various States, after taking into account the CRF spending and the IMG recommendation. The NCCF allocation is a grant and usually a political dispensation.

The meeting did not take up the States' demand for a loan and interest waiver during this drought year as the Rs. 4000 crore proposal is pending before the Union Cabinet for a decision.

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