Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Wednesday said the State government has sought Rs. 11,489 crore from the Centre for drought relief measures.
Participating in a meet-the-press programme organised by the Press Club of Bangalore and the Bangalore Reporters’ Guild here on Wednesday, the Chief Minister said the assistance sought from the Centre was in the form of two separate memorandums: a sum of Rs. 7,672 crore for immediate relief measures and Rs. 3,817 crore for long-term measures.
The two memorandums were submitted to the Centre following a suggestion by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on his recent visit to the State to review the drought situation.
Mr. Shettar hoped that a Central committee on drought, which is expected to meet in a day or two, would discuss the State’s revised memorandums and take a positive decision.
The State government had so far spent about Rs. 2,200 crore on drought-relief works, he said. The recent rain was not enough to wipe out the cumulative deficit in the drought-hit areas, he said, while pointing out that only on 35.22 lakh hectares of the targeted 74.70 lakh hectares had been sown. What was worse was that standing crops had dried up on 2.37 lakh hectares of land.
Tax revenue up
The Chief Minister, who holds the Finance portfolio, said the revenue from taxes had increased in 2011-12 by 20 per cent to Rs. 46,341 crore from the previous year.
Giving the break-up, he said the revenue from commercial taxes had increased by 22 per cent to Rs. 28,148 crore.
Similarly, revenue from excise had seen a jump of 18 per cent to touch Rs. 9,775 crore. Revenue from stamps and registration had increased by 31 per cent to Rs. 4,623 crore and revenue from motor vehicles taxes had increased by 17 per cent to Rs. 2,982 crore.
Hailing the Sakala scheme that provides 151 services from 11 departments to citizens within a specified deadline, he said the government had set a target of bringing another 72 services under this scheme, including those related to the State Secretariat.
Replying to queries, he said the delay in appointment of Lokayukta was mainly due to the ongoing court cases with respect to procedures related to appointment.
On allegations that certain officials in the Lokayukta themselves were corrupt, he said the government would take action against the erring officials irrespective of whether they are in the Lokayukta Department or other departments, if incidents of violation of norms came to its notice.
State government has spent Rs. 2,200 crore on drought relief works 72 more services to be brought under Sakala scheme
