Union government today approved a grant of Rs 434 crore to Andhra Pradesh as drought relief.
The Union Home Minister, Rajnath Singh chaired a meeting of the High Level Committee (HLC) here today to announce Central Assistance to States affected by drought. An amount of Rs 2,550 crore has been approved for three states namely Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
The Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information and Broadcasting Arun Jaitley, Minister for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh, Vice-Chairman NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and senior officers of the Ministries of Home, Finance and Agriculture attended the meeting.
The Committee examined the proposals based on the report of the Central Team which visited the affected states by severe drought. The HLC approved the assistance from the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) in respect of Andhra Pradesh to the tune of Rs 433.77 crore, Rs 815 crore for Odisha and Rs 1304.52 crore for Uttar Pradesh. The HLC has deferred the decision in case of Telangana to the next week.
Recently, when a central team visited the state to study the drought situation in the state, chief minister Chandrababu Naidu sought Rs 2000 crore to take up drought relief works in the drought affected areas in state.
