AGP for Spl Eco Package for drought-hit Asom; PM positive to demand

New Delhi, Aug 24 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today assured an Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) delegation of a Special Economic Package for the north-eastern state which was currently facing the most severe drought in the past 132 years.

He further promised to visit -- after the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament -- the gateway to the country's north-east which he represents in the Rajya Sabha and personally see for himself the depredation that the unprecedented calamity has wrought in Asom, said AGP President Brindaban Goswami here.

Mr Goswami, who led the delegation to the meeting earlier here today, told mediapersons that 19 of the state's 27 districts were adversely affected by the drought which had affected at least three million farmers.

AGP members of the Lok Sabha Dr Arun Kumar Sarma and Sarbananda Sonowal, besides several party members, accompanied Mr Goswami to the meeting with the Prime Minister UNI BKS/DG vD GC1818