AP denied drought package, Naidu protests

In fact, Union Minister Pramod Mahajan announced after the Union Cabinet meeting last Saturday that along with Gujarat and Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh too would be given additional food stocks in view of the severe drought conditions. But Andhra was ultimately left out.

Naidu, who spoke to the Prime Minister over the phone, is understood to have expressed his displeasure and urged him to rush a Central team to study the situation in the state.

At a cabinet meeting held later, the Chief Minister said he would direct the party MPs to mount pressure on the Centre to release additional rice supplies to the state. “If necessary, our MPs will stage a dharna inside Parliament,” a minister told êThe Indian Express.

According to estimates, the state would have got about 80,000 tonnes under the special food assistance scheme as about 40 lakh families live in the drought-hit areas. With its exclusion from the list of drought-hit areas, the state would also forego another scheme under which each family would get 2 kg rice free of cost.

At the cabinet meeting, Naidu is learnt to have attacked the Centre for being insensitive to the severe drought situation in the state. “Several villages have been reeling under the drought and there is an acute drinking water shortage. The Centre should have come to our rescue,” he remarked.

Speaking to reporters in the evening, the Chief Minister said he had spoken to the Prime Minister and apprised him of the situation. “The state government has declared as many as 688 mandals in 18 districts as drought-hit and the situation is no better than in Gujarat and Rajasthan, the states for which the Centre has announced a special package. The total crop loss in the state is Rs 2,566 crore,” the Chief Minister said.

The cabinet expressed displeasure with the Centre on another count — supply of gas to three short-gestation power projects without taking the consent of the state.

Though three projects — GVK Power (for its new unit) and Oakwell and Gauthami Power secured gas allocations from the Centre, the state cabinet decided to keep the GVK’s proposal in abeyance as its tariff was not acceptable to AP Transco.

However, the cabinet decided to clear the proposals of the other two power projects — Gauthami and Oakwell Power. Apart from the two, five other power projects too were issued licences five years ago to produce power using naphtha. The state government later wanted them to shift to gas in view of the high cost of naphtha.