'Provide foodgrains for more BPL families'

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, SEPT. 1. The Chief Minister, Mr. S. M. Krishna, today urged the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, to bring an additional 31.56 lakh BPL (below poverty line) families in the State under the subsidised foodgrains scheme.

Speaking at a meeting of the National Development Council in New Delhi (a copy of his speech was made available here), he said 62.85 lakh BPL families had been identified in the State as eligible to benefit from the scheme and the State Government was incurring heavy expenditure in supplying foodgrains to them. But the Centre had recognised only 31.29 lakh BPL families.

He said the Food Corporation of India had stock of 36 million tonnes of foodgrains in excess of the prescribed buffer stock of 24 million tonnes. It was valued at Rs. 33,284 crores, and it should be utilised. The Centre should consider modifying the Annapoorna Scheme to provide 10 kg. of rice or wheat to destitute persons at the rates applicable to the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, Mr. Krishna said and added that the scheme should be extended to persons receiving old age pension.

Drought relief: Referring to the memorandum for a Central assistance of Rs. 903 crores to tackle drought, Mr. Krishna hoped that the State would be granted the amount.

On the issue of autonomy to States, the Chief Minister criticised the reported decision of the Union Government to withdraw from the States the powers to implement the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana.

He asked the Centre to work out a mechanism to enable the States to replace the high-cost loans with fresh low-cost borrowings. The Centre, he said, should provide debt relief in the form of reduced interest rates on loans.

Gadgil-Mukherji formula: The Chief Minister urged the Prime Minister to bring before the NDA the issue of amending the Gadgil-Mukherji formula for granting Central assistance to State Plans. The revenue component of the Plan schemes had gone up over the years with the increase in the responsibilities of the States in major social sectors such as education and health. Mr. Krishna said that his Government proposed to increase the expenditure on primary and secondary education from Rs. 2,500 crores to Rs. 5,000 crores by 2004-05. It also planned to increase the expenditure on health sector from Rs. 1,000 crores to Rs. 2,100 crores, water supply from Rs. 600 crores to Rs. 1,300 crores, and roads from Rs. 400 crores to Rs. 1,050 crores in the same period.

Stressing the need for treating the States as equal partners in the development process, Mr. Krishna said a major part of the expenditure on the international airport project at Devanahalli would be borne by private sector partners and the Centre's liability was limited to 13 per cent of the equity. Still, there were difficulties in securing clearances, he added.

The Chief Minister asked Mr. Vajpayee to hold the next two-day NDC meeting in Bangalore. The proposal evoked a favourable response from Mr. Vajpayee.

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Section  : Southern States
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