Industry & Economy
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Natural Calamities
Centre okays drought aid to Karnataka, Maharashtra
Our Bureau
New Delhi
,
Feb. 20
THE Union Government has sanctioned an amount of Rs 249.68 crore as drought relief assistance for Karnataka and Rs 33.21 crore for Maharashtra. The aid sanctions from the National Calamity Contingency Fund followed the recommendations of the high-level committee, which met here on Friday under the chairmanship of the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, and discussed the drought assistance required by the two States.
The assistance to Karnataka for the February-June period this year includes Rs 20 crore which is meant for supplementary nutrition in the form of foodgrains. An allocation of 4.13 lakh tonnes of foodgrains has also been approved for the period, to be disbursed in suitable instalments to meet the food component of wages in relief employment.
Earlier, the State was sanctioned Rs 115.86 crore and 3.30 lakh tonnes of foodgrains worth Rs 330 crore to tide over the current drought.
In the case of Maharashtra, however, the sanction of Rs 33.21 crore is as a special case to meet the additional burden of drought relief employment under the `Employment Guarantee Scheme' in 71 drought-affected taluks of the State as a one-time measure.
This is in addition to the Rs 44.25-crore assistance and four lakh tonnes of foodgrains worth Rs 400 crore that was sanctioned earlier for the calamity.
The committee also approved enhanced coverage, from 50 per cent to 75 per cent, rural households under the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category for allocation of foodgrains for relief employment.
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