The Hindu : More foodgrains allocated for drought-hit States

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2003

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More foodgrains allocated for drought-hit States

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI June 30. The high-level task force on drought led by the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, decided today to make an additional allocation of 6.34 lakh tonnes of foodgrains for the drought-hit States for July.

Andhra Pradesh gets the bulk of the allocation with 2.2 lakh tonnes, followed by Gujarat, with 1.58 lakh tonnes.

Tamil Nadu has been provided one lakh tonnes more, while Karnataka 55,000 tonnes. Madhya Pradesh would get an additional 70,000 tonnes and Chattisgarh 31,000 tonnes.

Announcing the decision, a Government spokesperson said the meeting decided that the fresh allocations would have to be utilised by the States within July. Timely lifting of foodgrains and their utilisation by the States had been a major problem earlier despite special measures such as deployment of more railway wagons for the movement of the consignments.

Of the total of 79.17 lakhs tonnes so far allocated, only about 64 lakh tonnes was lifted and out of that, only 56 lakh tonnes was actually utilised.

Meanwhile, according to information reaching the Union Agriculture Ministry, there has been considerable improvement in the drought situation in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Gujarat, and Rajasthan following good rain over the past 10 days.

Ministry sources said that as per the latest data, among the drought-affected areas, rainfall continued to be significantly deficit only in north interior Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Vidarbha, and east Madhya Pradesh.

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