 "Farmers, agriculture")
Puducherry government has sought Rs 100 crore from the Centre as drought relief as there was a total loss of crop in Puducherry and Kraikal following the failure of monsoon, Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said here on Saturday.
Talking to reporters, Narayanasamy said that he had written a detailed letter to the Centre seeking Rs 100 crore as relief to farmers who had lost their crops in the two regions.
He said a resolution adopted unanimously on the floor of the Assembly on January 24 seeking the relief was forwarded to the Union Home Ministry.
He said he had brought to the notice of the Union Home and Agriculture Ministers the critical situation caused by drought in Puducherry and Karaikal.
"I have also urged the Central ministers to depute a Central team to Puducherry for assessment of the situation", he said.
Narayanasamy blamed the Dredging Corporation of India which had been entrusted with the work to desilt the estuary off the fishing harbour in neighbouring Thengaithittu for the current sufferings of the fishermen.
The Corporation had not replaced the dredger used by it after the equipment used for desilting the estuary broke down within days of its use due to certain snags', he said and added that fishermen were now facing the critical situation of not being able to navigate the fishing vessels because of uncleared mounds of sand.
"The Corporation should compensate the fishermen for loss of work and loss of earning due to delay in carrying out the dredging operations", he said.
A sum of Rs 14 crores had been released by Puducherry government to the Dredging Corporation for its operations.
An agreement would be inked next week in Delhi between the Chennai Port Trust and Puducherry Port department to bring cargo ships from Chennai to Puducherry port, he said.
The Puducherry port would act as a subsidiary venue to handle the cargo which would also be of help for decongesting the Chennai port.
