Naveen seeks drought aid from Centre

With a large part of Odisha reeling under severe drought, chief minister Naveen Patnaik has sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, underscoring the need for timely financial assistance from the Centre to combat the crisis.

"A large part of Odisha is experiencing severe drought due to erratic and scanty rainfall during the Kharif season which has damaged the standing crops. My government has already initiated a number of pro-active measures to combat the drought situation. As against the decision of the Union government to provide crop loans to the farming community at seven per cent interest rate of interest, my government has been providing interest subvention to the commercial and cooperative banks to bring down the rate of interest to five per cent and in case of prompt payment, the effective rate of interest has been two per cent per annum after adjustment of the interest incentive made available by the Union government", Patnaik stated in the letter to the Prime Minister.

The prevailing drought situation has spurred the state government to cut interest rate further from five per cent to four per cent. This has been done through interest subvention by the state government for small, marginal and medium farmers, Patnaik said.