Good drought, bad math

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Listing discrepancies in the memorandum submitted by the state government for fiscal aid from the Union government to implement drought relief measures, Union rural development minister, Jairam Ramesh, on Thursday directed the state government to present a revised petition even as Union agriculture minister, Sharad Pawar, assured the government that its plea would be considered in the meeting of Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on drought next week.

While picking holes in the state government’s memorandum, Mr Jairam Ramesh said, “In such a distressful situation the state government should explain how much is required to meet its contingency plan, while the second part must contain detailed information about its long term strategies to tackle such a situation. Though the memorandum has sought nearly Rs 5,000 crore, it does not emphasise why it wanted such an amount.” Mr Sharad Pawar and Mr Jairam Ramesh held discussions with Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and his senior cabinet colleagues on implementation of measures to mitigate the impact of an acute drought. Mr Shettar reminded the Union ministers about the petitions submitted by the state government seeking financial support for drought relief programmes.

“In the first memorandum submitted on November 21 last year, a relief of Rs 2,605.99 crore was sought. The Centre approved Rs 186.68 crore, and only Rs 70.23 crore has been released. In the second memorandum submitted on May 5 this year, the Centre was requested to sanction Rs 5,864.25 crore towards drought relief measures. As per the letter dated June 28, 2012, the Centre had released Rs 282.35 crore. According to newspaper reports, the Centre has approved a financial package of Rs 1,931 crore, of which the state will get Rs 224 crore,” he pointed out.

In his speech, Mr Pawar said, “We are aware of the fact that Karnataka is reeling under the worst-ever drought. Therefore, we took the proactive step to visit this state as we could not get a proper picture of the drought. The memorandum submitted by you (Karnataka) did not give us the correct picture. So, we came here to gather first hand information. After the discussions, I realise the state government wanted relaxation of certain rules to mitigate the impact of drought. I requested CM Jagadish Shettar to send me a detailed list of rules which he wants amended to help tackle the drought.”

He said the Union government would certainly consider the state government’s suggestion to increase the number of employment generation days from 100 to 150 under the MGNREGS. “But, I do not agree with your idea of buying fodder from Punjab and supplying it to farmers. Instead, the state can persuade farmers to grow fodder and sell it to other farmers,” he added.