BHUBANESWAR, Jan 7: The Centre approved Rs 815 crore as drought assistance to Odisha from the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) on Wednesday.
The high level committee (HLC), chaired by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, met at Delhi and approved assistance to the tune of Rs 2550 crore from National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF) for three States including Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh besides Odisha.
The High Level Committee examined the proposals based on the report of the inter-ministerial teams of the Centre which had visited the States to assess the drought situation.
Confirming that the Centre has approved Rs 815 crore towards drought assistance to Odisha, Special Relief Commissioner Pradipta Mohapatra said.
The Central team had recommended Rs 1013.65 crore to the HLC, said Mohapatra.
The Central team, which visited four most affected districts during the first week of December last year, had found the situation arising out of drought critical and expressed that immediate mitigation measures were required.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya and Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi attended the HLC which also approved Rs 433.77 crore for Andhra Pradesh and Rs 1304.52 crore for Uttar Pradesh to tackle drought. The panel will meet next week to take a decision on Telangana.
