The Government on Tuesday assured all “possible” help to drought-hit States, but ruled out any change in norms till 2015 for providing relief, rejecting demands for higher compensation by various Rajya Sabha members.
Cutting across political lines, members raised the issue of severe drought in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
In replying to a call attention motion, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Harish Rawat, said the norms were fixed based on the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission. “The Finance Commission is an independent organisation and even the Government of India has no interference...For changing the norms, we will have to wait till 2015,” he said.
He dismissed allegations that the Centre was “delaying” grant of compensation to the State. Mr Rawat said the Government was trying to monitor the effects of climate change on agriculture. He said all possible efforts were being made to address the situation. “The Government of India supplements efforts of State Governments with financial and logistics support,” he added.
OPPOSITION WALK-OUT
The Opposition, however, was dissatisfied with his reply and the BJP walked out of the Upper House.
Earlier, initiating the debate BJP leader, Mr Venkaiah Naidu, said the Centre was not taking enough steps to address the problems, despite an all-party delegation meeting with the Prime Minister on the issue. “70 per cent of the State, that is, 123 talukas out of 176 have been declared drought-affected by the State Government. It is almost three-fourths. Rainfall in the last quarter is the lowest since 1970. In the last 42 years, it is the lowest. Both kharif and rabi crops have totally failed,” Mr Naidu said.
Mr Tapan Sen of the CPI (M) said more capital investment was needed to improve the situation in the agriculture sector. He said well-producing States were also facing problems, particularly in storage. “Those who are producing are not able to earn their livelihood. They are not able to survive. In that kind of a situation, I think, the whole policy issues are to be looked into,” Mr Sen said.
MEET WITH PM
Meanwhile, an all-party delegation of MPs and MLAs from Maharashtra, led by the Chief Minister, Mr Prithviraj Chavan, met the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on the issue of drought in the State. Members of the delegation told reporters that the Prime Minister asked the State Government to exercise fiscal discipline through proper use of allocations made by the Planning Commission.
Congress General Secretary, Mr Rahul Gandhi, who had also visited the drought-hit areas of Maharashtra recently, also met the Prime Minister on Monday on the same issue.