Center to shoulder 50% burden on diesel subsidy

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Friday said that the Centre had agreed to shoulder 50% of the burden incurred by Bihar for its diesel subsidies.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had sought help from Centre for diesel subsidy given to farmers in the state for irrigation purpose.

“The Centre will also extend this facility to other states,” Pawar added.

“UP, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Assam, Manipur and parts of some other states are likely to be affected by deficient rainfall. Manipur has declared drought in all districts and Assam and Jharkhand have declared drought in 14 and four districts respectively,” Pawar said while responding to BJP’s ‘calling attention motion’ over the issue.

Pawar said rainfall deficiency in the country, which stood at 62% in June, had gone down to 17% leading to considerable improvement in overall situation.

Replying to queries on uncertainty resulting from insufficient monsoon rainfall, Pawar said the situation had improved in most parts of the country except northwest, north-east, UP and Bihar.

On paddy cultivation, he said substantial shortfall had been witnessed in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. But Punjab and Haryana were not a problem as the farmers had sustained the transplanted crop with irrigated water.

Pawar said while 100 MW of additional power from the Central pool was released to the farmers in Punjab and Haryana, the Centre had agreed to release another 100 MW for the next 15 days.

He also informed the Rajya Sabha that exports of non-Basmati rice and wheat, which was allowed through diplomatic channel, would be completely banned.

“We are going to stop it. We will take the financial burden,” he said, replying to a Calling Attention Notice.

Allaying fears of shortage of foodgrains, Pawar said, “Stock position is quite comfortable. We have sufficient stock position for 13 months in our kitty.”

Pawar was worried over runaway rise in prices of Arhar dal to Rs 95-100 a kg, he said “this will be a temporary phenomenon. A financial support for states is under consideration to help in this regard.”

Centre will also consider how loans taken by farmers can be rescheduled, the minister said, adding “We are going to extend some concessions or other facilities. We will take decision. We will not take any coercive method for loan recovery”.