Don't make a controversy out of my foreign tour: Minister

Hyderabad, Aug 16 (UNI) Andhra Pradesh Agriculture Minister N Raghuveera Reddy today urged the opposition not to make a controversy out of his tour to Australia during the recent floods.

The Minister who returned here early today, held a review meeting with officials on the damage suffered by the farming sector.

Later, talking to newsmen, he clarified that when he left for an international conference in which 900 delegates from 100 countries participated, the flood situation was not so grim.

He said he was asked to preside over one of the sessions of the conference and had been in constant touch with his cabinet colleagues and officials when the flood situation turned serious.

He said there was nothing that he could do as agriculture minister so long the floods were occuring. His role of providing succour and safety to the victims begins only after the flood water recedes.

He said 65,000 quintals of seeds would be distributed to farmers either free of cost or at subsidised rates. Seeds would be distributed free of cost where crop loss was total and where the loss was 50 per cent the seeds would be distrubuted at subsidised prices to enable the farmers to grow alternative crops.

He said distribution of seeds at 50 per cent subsidy, had already started in the worst affected Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts.

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