CM urges Centre to allot wheat quota to Himachal

Shimla, May 11 (UNI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has urged the Central Government to allot an additional quota of 4000 MT of wheat per month to the State to meet the shortage of food grains.

In a letter to Union Minister of Agriculture and Consumers Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Sharad Pawar, Prof Dhumal has said due to bad weather conditions, the State has witnessed extensive damage to wheat crop. He added that according to the estimate made by the Agriculture Department, the State had suffered a loss of about 2.06 lakh MT wheat production. He said low production of grain in the State would further increase the demand of food grain, specially wheat, under APL Scheme.

He said an allotment of 6748 MT of wheat has been made per month under the scheme in the State during the year 2008-09 and added that average lifting of wheat by the State Government was 10,595 MT during the year 2007-08.

UNI AS HS GL KN1616