Naveen protests meagre foodgrain supply to Orissa

Bhubaneswar, Aug 18 (UNI) Expressing concern over the meagre supply of foodgrain quota to Orissa, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today dashed a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging him to intervene into the matter.

Drawing the attention of the Prime Minister, Mr Patnaik accused the centre of showing total apathy towards the basic problems of the people of the state.

The Chief Minister said as against the rice quota of 57,000 ton for Above Poverty Line(APL) category during 2006-2007, this year the Centre had released only 858 ton of rice.

Similarly, the allotmenmt of wheat for the state had been drastically reduced from 24,000 tons per month to 7993 ton which clearly revealed the ''discrimination'' attitude of the Centre towards the state.

Mr Patnaik said while rice quota under APL category for Orissa has been reduced, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nady had received 1,31,334 ton and 1,26,255 ton respectively.

The Chief Minister urged the Prime Minister to raise the monthly foodgrain quota for APL to 65,000 ton keeping the interests of the people of the state. He had also drawn the attention of Union Food Supply Minister Sharad Pawar in this regard.

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