State seeks Rs 9,000cr aid

Hyderabad

Sept. 17: The state government will seek a Central assistance of Rs 9,000 crore for drought relief measures.
The state government has already declared drought in 981 mandals. The Chief Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, on Thursday asked the district collectors to send a mandal-wise update on the the drought situation so that more mandals can be added to the list if need be.
According to the information obtained from various departments, the state government will seek assistance of Rs 3,500 crore for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NGERS), Rs 390 crore for agriculture and input subsidy, Rs 450 crore for both urban and rural drinking water, Rs 350 crore for animal husbandry, Rs 150 crore for horticulture and Rs 80 crore for integrated child development scheme.
The government will also seek assistance of Rs 4,500 crore under the Prime Minister Package for drought relief. The state had got Rs 1,900 crore in the early days of the Congress regime in 2004. That grant was utilised on agriculture and irrigation.
Sources in agriculture department said crop in about nine lakh hectares of land was damaged due to drought-like conditions.