Govt. committed to the cause of farmers, says Ravi Shankar Prasad

Union Communication and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said that the Centre is committed to the cause of farmers who are entitled to get their fertiliser at a reduced rate.

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"There is a provision of subsidy for fertilisers. The fertiliser is delivered by the manufacturers at a reduced cost and the subsidy is paid by the government. The fertiliser manufacturer had paid the amount by making arrangements with two banks -SBI and PNB- and today the Cabinet has approved the amount of Rs. 6,000 crore plus, because this was lent by the two banks to these fertiliser companies and it also earned an interest of Rs. 64 crores," Prasad told a press conference here.

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"The government today has also allowed interest to be paid to the banks. This shows our commitment to the cause of farmers who are entitled to get their fertilizer at reduced rate," he added.

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Prasad also briefed the media on the Coal India saying that all subsidiaries of the mining company are in profit.

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"In coal, we have several subsidiaries, two subsidiary-Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) and Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) were in loss. I am glad to tell you that today all our subsidiaries are in profit. We have also decided to give performance related pay from 2007 to supervisory and managerial level employees," Prasad said.