Ministries asked to release funds for drought relief

With around 350 million people reeling under the impact of drought, aggravated by the summer, across the country, the Union cabinet secretary on Monday directed all ministries and departments to immediately release additional funds under various schemes as soon as the finance Bill gets cleared by Parliament.

The secretary gave these instructions after reviewing the drought and drinking water situation in the country with chief secretaries of 13 states and top officials from the ministries of drinking water and sanitation, rural development, land resources, water resources, urban development and agriculture.

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According to an official statement, Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha directed all central ministries to convey to states the financial provision for each scheme for the financial year so that they can arrange funds from other schemes to mitigate problems arising out of the drought.

As the finance Bill is yet to be cleared, the finance ministry is able to disburse just a sixth of the allocation made for a scheme or programme made in the Budget 2016-17.

Press Trust of India reported that the Bill might get passed this week after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley replies to the debate when he returns from Frankfurt. Jaitley leaves for Frankfurt on Tuesday.

The debate on the Finance Bill will be initiated on May 4 by Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha and Jaitley will reply to the debate the next day, PTI said. The Bill deals with tax proposals of the government. Its passage signals the end of the Budget exercise, which also enables the government to allocate funds.

States raised issues like construction of farm ponds, community ponds, check dams and measures to remove silt, and demanded early release of funds to take up water harvesting.

Chief Secretaries of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat participated in the review meeting through video conferencing.