Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister
N Kiran Kumar Reddy today appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh to consider enhancing the scale of relief to farmers hit
by natural calamities in accordance with the recommendations
of the Working Group on Agriculture Production.
The Working Group is headed by Haryana Chief Minister
Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
The calamities that struck AP in the last two months
had caused an damage to public infrastructure to the tune of
Rs 1,207.72 crore, the Chief Minister informed the Prime
Minister in a letter.
"The calamities affected 5,327 villages in 15
districts and resulted in devastation of agriculture and
horticulture crops in 11.53 lakh hectares besides affecting
the animal husbandry sector. This has also affected the
livelihood of over 20 lakh small and marginal farmers."
"As per the existing Calamity Relief Fund norms, the
input subsidy comes to Rs 389.04 crore. However, considering
the magnitude of the calamity, the state and announced relief
at an enhanced norm of Rs 6,000 per hectare for paddy.
"At this rate, the commitment of input subsidy comes
to Rs 593.12 crore. The total input subsidy comes to Rs.649.18
crore if we include the estimated requirement of input subsidy
for the damage to groundnut crop to the tune of Rs 56.04
crore," Kiran said.
While thanking the Prime Minister for extending Rs 400
crore as advance, the CM requested that the sum might be
treated as a grant "over and above the CRF". (
PTI
