Centre Okays Rs 280 cr Drought Aid for AP

Arun Jaitley, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and senior officers of the ministries of Home, Finance and Agriculture departments took part in the meeting.

HYDERABAD: The Union government on Monday sanctioned Rs 280.19 crore to Andhra Pradesh as the second tranche of financial assistance to tackle severe drought conditions for the current financial year.

A High Level Committee (HLC) for sanctioning Central Assistance to States affected by drought, headed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, after its meeting held in New Delhi on Monday approved the drought assistance.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and senior officers of the ministries of Home, Finance and Agriculture departments took part in the meeting.

“The HLC approved the assistance from the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) in respect of Andhra Pradesh to the tune of Rs 280.19 crore,” a release by the Centre stated.

The HLC had examined the proposals submitted by the drought-affected States including AP and the report of the central team, which had visited the States affected by severe drought, while sanctioning the financial aid to the States, the release added.

Earlier, during last January, the Centre had sanctioned Rs 434 crore as the first tranche of financial aid to AP as drought relief for the current financial year.

In fact, when the Inter-ministerial Central team had visited the State during last December to study the prevailing drought conditions in the state, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had sought Rs 2,000.56 crore financial aid from the Centre to make the state a ‘drought-proof’ one. The State government had earlier declared 350 mandals in the State as drought-hit.

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