The Centre’s High level Committee (HlC) on Tuesday decided to provide Maharashtra a whopping sum of Rs 3,100 crore and Rs 2,022 crore to Madhya Pradesh from the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) to deal with the severe drought in the State.
The meeting of HlC for the Central Assistance to States affected by drought was chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh, Vice-Chairman NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya, Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and senior officers of the Ministries of Home, Finance and Agriculture also attended the meeting.
The Committee examined the proposals based on the report of the Central Team which has so far visited nine States affected by severe drought. Ten States have sent proposals to the Centre seeking assistance. Only two States were cleared on Tuesday. The amount being provided to Maharashtra is the highest it has ever received from Centre as assistance. Uttar Pradesh has sought Rs 2000 crore assistance. Sources in agriculture ministry said the Government is examining the report from the Central Team that toured the state to examine the impact of drought.
“This Government is giving higher amount of assistance to States than the previous one to help them deal with drought situation,” Radha Mohan Singh said. He added that in this regard the previous government had allocated NDRF a total amount of Rs 33580 crores for five years to be given the states while the ruling NDA Government has nearly doubled this amount by setting aside Rs 61,219 crore. Similarly, in 2014-15 states disaster relief funds (SDRF) were allocated Rs 7800 crores during the present Government this allocation has been enhanced to Rs 11080 crores.
He even alleged that several States like Chhattisgarh were never given any amount by the UPA Government from NDRF during 2010-11 to 2013-14. Chhattisgarh had sought Rs 6,000 crore in 2015-16 and was given Rs 1,672 crores. Similarly, he added, Madhya Pradesh which had sought assistance of Rs 5,700 crores from NDRF got only Rs 494 crores during 2013-14. This year, MP had sought Rs 4,800 crores and was approved assistance of Rs 2022 crores under NDRF. Maharashtra, according to Singh, had sought Rs 10,582 crores from 2010-14 but got only Rs 2642 crores. This State had sought Rs 8,823 crores during 2014-16 has been given Rs 5,000 crores in two years.