Chief Minister V. S. Achuthanandan said here on Wednesday that the bottleneck in the implementation of extended scheme for supply of rice at Rs. 2 a kg to APL card holders had been cleared.
Talking to the media after a meeting of the Cabinet, the Chief Minister said that the Cabinet had permitted sanction of budgeted funds for payment of dues to the ration dealers who had supplied rice at Rs. 2 a kg to card holders after lifting the rice at Rs. 8.90 a kg.
The government would assess the arrears in payments to the dealers and sanction them upon submission of the accounts. The Chief Minister said that the resumption of the scheme had been affected by delay in receipt of communication from the Election Commission regarding the lifting of ban on implementation of the scheme and government holidays in the intervening period.
Mr. Achuthanandan said that the clearance of the Commission would be sought for upgradaing schools decided upon earlier before the commencement of the academic year and maintenance of school buildings and roads. Clearance would also be sought for appointments to the public sector units.
He said that the government would issue notification declaring Malayalam as the official language in 34 public sector units and cooperatives and also the Road Fund Board and the Department of Science and Technology.
The Cabinet decided to pay a compensation of Rs. 10000 a hectare to farmers who suffered crop loss in unanticipated summer rains in Kuttanad. The Alappuzha Collector would be sanctioned Rs. 25 lakh for repair works. These decisions would be subject to clearance from the Election Commission as the code of conduct for the elections was still in force.
