The Hindu Business Line : Kerala's per capita debt estimated at Rs 14,425

Thiruvananthapuram March 19 The per capita debt of Kerala was at Rs 14,425.40 as on March 21, 2006. In reply to a question in the State Assembly on Monday, the Finance Minister, Dr Thomas Isaac, said that the total debt of the State stood at Rs 45,929 crore.

Replying to another question, the Minister said that the Commercial Taxes Department had been asked to collect advance tax from the promoters of lotteries of other States as per the order of the High Court.

The High Court had permitted the promoters to continue the sale of the lottery tickets till their registrations were cancelled. The court had also stayed the proceedings for cancellation of registrations. In these circumstances, the promoters were allowed to sell the lottery tickets after paying advance tax, the Minister said.

Hydel projects

The Electricity Minister, Mr A.K. Balan, informed the House that three hydel project proposals made by the State Government were pending with the Centre.

Of them, the proposal for Athirappilly project had been pending since 1996, while another proposal for Pathrakkadavu project was submitted to the Centre in 2005.

He said that the Government had detected 1,690 cases of power theft, amounting to Rs 7.5 crore, since it came to power in May last year. An amount of Rs 11.03 crore was fixed as fine in these cases, out of which Rs 9.47 crore had already been realised.

MILK SHORTAGE

The Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Mr C. Divakaran said that shortage of milk for the past few days would be solved within the next couple of days.

He said that steps had already been initiated to bring more milk from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra to meet the shortage. The procurement of milk by the cooperatives in the State had come down from 10 lakh litres to 6.7 lakh litres a day even as the supply from the neighbouring States had fallen considerably in the last few weeks, he said.